An implementing partner to roll out Job Search Clubs (JSC) in Jordan

PROJECT BACKGROUND

1. General background

The global forced displacement crisis has grown in scale and complexity in recent years, with 117.3 million people forcibly displaced worldwide by the end of 2023 (UNHCR). Forcibly displaced persons (FDPs), including refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), face acute vulnerabilities such as loss of assets, psychological trauma, limited rights, protection risks, disrupted education, and uncertain futures. Host communities (HCs) likewise struggle to sustain their own development amid these challenges.

In response to these considerable challenges, the ‘PROSPECTS’ Partnership — launched by the Government of the Netherlands in 2019 — brings together the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNHCR, UNICEF, and the World Bank. The partnership adopts a holistic approach across eight countries (Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Sudan, and Uganda), leveraging each agency’s comparative advantages and expertise to improve access to education, decent jobs, protection, and critical infrastructure for FDPs and HCs. In 2024, the partnership launched Phase II, building on the results and lessons learned from Phase I (2019–2023) to maximize impact. This new phase addresses core challenges through PROSPECTS’ three original pillars—education and skills, employment and economic inclusion, and protection and social protection—while introducing a fourth pillar on critical infrastructure to respond to evolving needs.  

2. PROSPECTS in Jordan

Under PROSPECTS in Jordan, the ILO focuses on strengthening the labour market and creating sustainable livelihoods for both Jordanian host communities and Syrian refugees. Interventions are structured around three integrated pillars: (1) Education and Learning, through market-driven skills training, recognition of prior learning, and career guidance to enhance employability; (2) Economic Inclusion, which includes improvements to labour market governance and employment placement services, promoting fundamental principles and rights at work; and value chain development using the Access to Inclusive Markets Systems (AIMS) approach (3) Protection and Social Protection, through strengthened social protection schemes for vulnerable groups including expanding social security outreach to workers and tackling child labour.  Phase II (2024–2027) of PROSPECTS further expands on lessons learned while introducing new interventions aligned with Jordan’s evolving priorities.

As part of its efforts to support youth employment under Pillar 2 the project aims to improve access to decent employment for young Jordanians and Syrian refugees, with a key intervention being the Job Search Clubs as a mechanism to support youth with the skills needed to effective search, prepare and apply for jobs. 

 ASSIGNMENT BACKGROUND

The Job Search Club (JSC) approach was initially adapted by the ILO/Canada project on “Decent Jobs for Egypt’s Young People” since 2011 to the Egyptian context. The original Job Search Club method was developed by behavioural psychologist N.H. Azrin and Associates in Illinois, USA in the early 1980s as a behaviourally oriented, client-responsible model of job search and placement. The JSC model has since been updated and adapted by job search specialists in several countries and applied in varied labour markets contexts. These models were used to inform the process of development of the ILO Job Search Club model, in addition to adaptations of Human Resources Development Canada.

JSCs are two weeks of intensive job search support activities in which two facilitators assist a group of up to 16 job seekers to find their way into the labour market. The methodology and the materials of the Job search club in Egypt was initially started by ILO with the backstopping of the Canadian Expert Arthur Mails late 2012.  The JSC model used in Egypt is based on two main hypotheses: that finding employment opportunities is in itself a full-time job and that job seekers can function independently and effectively in their own job search; however, it is easier done with a group of people. This approach has been found to work well with problems in learning, motivation and maintenance of behaviour and assumes that appropriate job search behaviours can be learned.

Since 2014, the JSC model has also been further updated to include more recent job search strategies incorporating the ICT tools, technologies and other innovations such as social media mechanisms in job finding. In 2016, after strong advocacy by the ILO/Canada project on Decent Jobs for Egypt’s Young People, the Ministry of Youth and Sports decided to institutionalize the Job Search Clubs as part of its annual programme and budget.

In Jordan, the youth unemployment rate has now risen to 42 per cent[1], making it one of the country’s greatest and most pressing challenges.  Unemployment rates are even higher for young people with university educational attainment, standing at 51 per cent, with educated young women more likely to be unemployed in Jordan with an unemployment rate of almost 60 per cent (compared to 44 per cent of their male counterparts).  Furthermore, almost one-third of all young people in Jordan are neither in education nor in employment or training (NEET). In response to this, under the PROSPECTS partnership, the ILO, together with UNICEF, and in close coordination with the Ministry of Youth,  launched the Job Search Clubs in 2022, adapting the Egyptian manual to the Jordanian context.    To date, a total of 67 JSCs have been established in Jordan with namely 143 JSC facilitators trained, 13 master facilitators, and 1,455 young people having received the JSC training. The JSC has recently been updated, following a  regional knowledge exchange and lessons learned study tour to Egypt, and now reflects more sophisticated  digital elements that are required in today’s job search strategies and labour market. 

Against this backdrop, the ILO’s JSC methodology offers a timely and strategic intervention in Jordan. The JSC is designed to activate and engage young jobseekers through a structured, intensive job search programme aimed at enabling them to secure employment in the shortest feasible time. It targets groups of youth with similar needs and provides a supportive environment for building job search skills, receiving coaching, and engaging in peer learning. While the programme often focuses on those out of work for six months or more, it can also benefit youth who are newly entering the job market.

A Job Search Club brings together participants over a two-week period for daily sessions facilitated by a trained, ILO-certified facilitator. During these sessions, participants build practical skills in: