More disability-responsive employment services in Jordan

AMMAN (ILO News) - The International Labour Organization (ILO) has held a three-day training workshop for a group of employment service officers in Jordan to help ensure that employment services are responsive to persons with disabilities and effective in improving their employability.

Taking part were 30 officers from the General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions (GFJTU), the Ministry of Labour (MoL), the National Aid Fund (NAF), the Vocational Training Corporation (VTC), the National Employment and Training (NET) company, and the Technical and Vocational Skills Development Commission (TVSDC).

ILO specialists coordinated and facilitated the training, which focused on capacitating employment service officers and national partners with the knowledge and tools required to ensure that employment services are impactful and inclusive.

Totalling nine sessions, the workshop explained disability concepts and definitions in line with international standards, like the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It also covered the national legislative and legal framework of the rights of employment of people with disabilities, including the Law on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, their employment regulations, and the Labour Law.

The training discussed the different types of disabilities, and how certain jobs and occupations can accommodate and be more responsive to persons with disabilities, in addition to challenges facing these persons and the roles of stakeholders in addressing these barriers. The training included interactive activities and sought to identify and develop guiding tools for people with disabilities.

“The workshop was part of ILO activities to increase labour market participation and contributions of persons with disabilities,” said Dr Khaled Al-Qudah “It aimed at building the capacity of employment service officers dealing with people with disabilities, and at highlighting strategies that can help develop the skills of persons with disabilities and equip them to enter the labour market.”


The workshop was funded by the US State Department Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), and by the “EU-ILO collaboration in the monitoring of labour aspects in the implementation of EU rules of origin initiative for Jordan” project which is funded by the EU.

People with disabilities are largely excluded from key social, educational, and economic areas of engagement and participation in Jordan, hindering these persons from attaining a dignified quality of life.

Exclusion is far more pronounced amongst disadvantaged people with disabilities, particularly Syrian refugees. The prevalence of disability amongst Syrians is comparably high, reaching 2008 to 30 percent, compared to 13 percent among Jordanians.

Alongside pervasive cultural stigmas, the explicit institutional prejudice thrusts many persons with disabilities into conditions of complete dependency, increasing their likelihood of falling into a brutal cycle of intergenerational poverty and exclusion.