In 2011, the ILO initiated a technical cooperation project funded by the National Entrepreneurship Institute “Riyadah” entitled: “Fostering Entrepreneurship Education: ILO Know About Business (KAB) programme at the National Entrepreneurship Institute RIYADAH”.
 
The project’s immediate objective was originally targeting young Saudi men going through the technical and vocational educational system. A key achievement in this project was the inclusion of women trainers and students at a later stage based on discussions with the Technical Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC), which widened the scope and outreach of the project and ensured a gender-balanced approach.

The ILO conducted several Trainings of Facilitators workshops on the “Know About Business” Porgramme, for women and men teachers at the TVTC to enable them to teach the programme in their classrooms. The workshops covered the technical content of the KAB programme and the participatory teaching techniques.

Throughout the implementation of the project, Saudi women trainers showed great initiative and commitment to the programme. Seventy four KAB women teachers were trained and twenty three (31%) successfully completed the requirements and were certified as KAB National Facilitators.

Among them, two trainers, Ms. Itidal Radi and Ms. Najla Alamri, demonstrated strong facilitation skills and knowledge of the KAB programme, and were further trained by the Enterprise Development Specialist Ms. Rania Bikhazi as potential National Key Facilitators (NKFs). This would enable them to assume the responsibility of training additional women teachers at the TVTC if and when needed to ensure the sustainability of the programme beyond ILO’s technical project.

To complete their certification requirements as National Key Facilitators, the two Saudi ladies were required to attend a training in Lebanon from 15 to 19 July 2019, facilitated by the Regional Key Facilitator Mr. Wael Ghosn. The workshop was also attended by 8 Palestinian National Facilitators who are in the process of being certified as National Key Facilitators. The diversity of the trainers’ backgrounds enriched the workshop by providing an enabling environment for the participants to transfer their knowledge and acquire different perspectives regarding the implementation of the KAB programme in different contexts.

When asked to comment on the workshop, Ms. Najla Alamri said: “Itidal and I are very different from our Palestinian colleagues, which is understandable since we come from different countries and have experienced different things on both the personal and professional levels. But during the KAB programme training, it was clear to me that we all spoke one language and had one goal: to spread the entrepreneurial mentality and skills in our societies.”