Employability capabilities among Syrian refugee youth in Jordan

Authors: José Manuel Roche, Fiona Samuels, Waseem Rihani, Yousef Kakish, Hala Abutaleb, Hanadi Riad and Andrew Christensen

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“We are now evolving and developing, a lot has changed”

Background: Najahna Programme 

Overall objective: ‘to ensure that 48,000 young Syrian refugees and other conflict-affected youth, especially adolescent girls, and young women, are empowered to become economic, social viable actors in an inclusive, healthy protective and gender responsive environment’

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5 year programme of work, consortium – Plan Denmark and Plan Jordan, NRC, RHAS, DI, ODI - Funded by Novo Nordisk >> Project Management Unit (PMU)

Works both in refugee camps – Zaatari and Azraq – and in 4 host communities: Amman, Irbid, Mafraq and Zarqa & Age bracket 15-25

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Background: Najahna Programme

• Education: Increase youth access and completion of quality secondary education (formal and non-formal). 
• Employability: Enhance youth economic empowerment with equitable access to decent employment/self-employment
• ‘Enabling environment’: Greater access to quality sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender-based violence (GBV) services, aim to empower youth/girls to challenge gender norms

Key components:

Monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MELR) component:

• Led by ODI/QMUL working with International Research Centre of the King Hussein Foundation (IRCKHF), WeField and MEL staff in PMU
• Results framework with measurable sets of indicators
• Mixed method pre and post / baseline and endline survey

Evaluation Design

Takes a life course perspective, following the overall programme:

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• Allows the evaluation to situate youth in different sites exploring what motivates and underlies their behaviour, options and decisions

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• Follows young people in their households, to primary schools, to secondary schools or and/or non-formal education centres, to vocational training (TVET), to (company) apprenticeships, to employment

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• Collects data at most of the above locations in camps and host communities; including survey component, data collection at schools and non-formal education centres, and a company survey

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This academic paper is one of the outputs of the research and is based on qual and quant data collected as part of the baseline study��The paper examines the range of enablers and barriers to employability of Syrian refugee youth in Jordan

Quantitative component

• Refugee camps: Representative sample of 823 households from Azraq and Zaatari refugee camps
• Host communities: A stratified cluster sample of 994 households from host communities across Amman, Irbid, Mafraq and Zarqa. The catchment areas of the schools participating in the intervention were used as sample frame.

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Sample design:

• Household questionnaire: Administered to the head of household or their spouse. The questionnaire collects demographic data on all household members, educational attainment (for 6 year or older), school attendance (for 6- to 25-year-old), employment data (15 year or older), and a set of socioeconomic questions. Then either the respondent or their spouse completed the scale on attitudes towards gender norms
• Youth questionnaire: Longer interview with a randomly selected youth member (aged 15 to 25). Repeats individual questions to triangulate data from household questionnaire, plus questions on additional areas for in-depth analysis on education and vocational training history, employment and working conditions, employability scale and attitudes towards gender norms questions.

Questionnaire design:

Qualitative component

• The qualitative component consists of key and in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and family cases studies.
• Respondents included Syrian refugee youths, their family members, and other community-based key informants such as teachers and community leaders.
• A total of 104 interactions across the same camps and host communities were carried out.

Employability

• Employability in the quantitative survey is measured via a multidimensional subjective scale (Llinares-Insa et al, 2018, 2020), adapted and validated for the context as part of the research process including translation into Arabic, psychometric validation on pilot data in camps, and cognitive interviews.

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• The scale measures seven dimensions of employability: 1. Employment protective behaviour, 2. Employment risk, 3. Job-seeking behaviour, 4. Self-control, 5. Self-learning, 6. Occupation Expertise and 7. Personal Flexibility.

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• The research also uses a more objective metric on employment status based on standards ILO definitions: rate of economic participation and unemployment rate.

Economic participation (ILO definition)

Reasons for being economically inactive

Percentage of economically active population

• Lower economic participation among female
• Economic hardship is clearly a factor stimulating economic participation and leaving school earlier, as it is demonstrated by higher economic participation among Syrians, especially those living in camps, and among vulnerable youth

• Those in inactivity may be either studying, on a training course or have domestic obligations.
• The large majority of inactive boys and young men are studying, but inactive girls and young women split between those studying and those having domestic obligations

Economic participation (ILO definition)

Unemployment rate

• The sample in this study has a very high unemployment rate (66%) compared to the 18.4% national unemployment rate in Jordan
• Not only female population are less frequently economically active, they are also more likely to be unemployed
• Considerable higher unemployment rate among Syrian in camps, people with disability and economically vulnerable population

R: No, I just wanted to help my family. I wasn’t able to continue with school I had to help. My father is an old man, alhamdulilah and when we were unemployed, we just took aids from UNHCR and iris scan, but the family becomes bigger and our needs increased so, my brother and I start to work. (IDI with 17-year-old Syrian boy who is single, studied up to 7th grade, lives in Mafraq)

R: There are always less job opportunities. My mother has been looking for a job for a year now and no one employed her. (IDI with 17-year-old Syrian girl who is engaged, studied up to 10th grade, lives in Zaatari camp)

Employability scale (aggregate results)

Socio-demographic factors:

• Low variability (70 to 80%)
• Employability gradually increases with each additional level of education, or when attending school
• Exposure to apprentice work experience highly associated with better employability
• Low level of employability among unactive, linked to low level of education, dropping school and marring earlier
• Differences across disability status are also statistically significant
• Low score levels in self-control, employment risks, and job seeking behaviour. Higher in self-learning, protective behaviour, occupational expertise, and flexibility.

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Enablers and barriers to employability �a life course perspective

Gender norms attitudes and aspirations

• Consensus that equal treatment of boys and girls should be the norm, but views vary when attitudes towards gender norms and aspirations are assessed in more details.
• Respondent’s attitudes towards gender norms was measured with a Likert scale composed of 14 items. The scale compromises items used in various gender scales applied in Arab speaking countries. The statement were adapted to the local context, piloted and validated. The result is a scale with high reliability (Cronbach Alpha higher than 0.80).
• Examples of statements includes:
• Young women should be allowed to choose who they marry and when they marry
• Daughters should be sent to school only if they are not needed to help at home
• A woman’s place is not only in the household, but she should also be allowed to work
• A woman who works outside the home cannot be a good mother

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Gender norms attitudes and aspirations

• Social pressure as a barrier: Male respondents have more traditional attitudes, and this gender gap is larger among younger respondents.
• Traditional male youth in comparison with male head of household. While this was not in evidence in the qualitative study, other research in Jordan has also found such a pattern.
• More traditional in host communities, especially among older population which is associated with lower female economic participation
• Least vulnerable register less traditional values, which is associated with more female economic participation and school progression

Gender norms attitudes and aspirations

Marriage … also change ..

I: Who decides the husband for the girl and the wife for the guy?�R: The mother usually decides, she makes this decision either for a girl or a guy�I: Does anyone else make this decision with the mother?�R: The father and the relatives (IDI with 15-year-old Syrian boy who is single, studied up to 9th grade, lives in Amman)

What I like is that they (the Jordanians) don't allow the girl to get married while she's still a young, unlike when we lived in Syria where she used to get married at the age of 14 (FCS with 41-year-old mother of 14-year-old Syrian girl who studied up to 7th grade, living in Amman)

Education … and change

I: What was the main reason you stopped studying after the seventh grade, as you mentioned?

R: We used to live in a village where girls were only supposed to study for that amount of time. I was told that what good would it do, but now everyone studies.

I: So, continuing to study wasn't essential, right?

R: No, it was not, and now we think like that. (FCS with 47-year-old mother of 17-year-old Syrian girl who studied up to 10th grade, living in Irbid)

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Gender norms attitudes and aspirations

Employment … and change ..

R: No, she's not allowed to get a job … When she gets married, she can do whatever she wants. At that point she will be free, but till then she is not allowed to… We have a tradition that girls are not allowed to work. (FCS with 45-year-old mother of 16 year old Syrian girl who studied up to 5th grade, living in Amman)

R: In Syria, very few girls were working because of the customs and traditions, it is forbidden for girls to work, but when we came to Jordan, we had to work (FGD with Syrian and Jordanian women aged 38 - 64 living in Irbid)

R: If a female works, it's to support her father financially; if a boy works, it's to create his future and save money for starting a family and getting married. (IDI with 16 year old Syrian boy who is single, studied up to 11th grade, lives in Azraq camp)

R: now for guys when they become a teenager he starts to think of marriage and start to collect money (IDI with 18 year old Syrian man who is single, studied up to 11th grade, lives in Zaatari camp)

R1: A girl can spend her salary however she wants, a guy cannot as he has more responsibilities. (FGD with Jordanian men aged 32 - 58 living in Amman)

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Transition through formal and non formal education

• School attendance is lower among Syrians, and among economically vulnerable children.
• Boys, and particularly Syrian boys, have greater risk of dropping out and not transitioning to secondary education
• Having to work or having marital/domestic obligations is a commonly mentioned reason for not attending school.
• Transition from primary to secondary is the main challenge for many, especially Syrian children. The next barrier is the transition from secondary to tertiary. The difficulty to passing the Tawjihi exam becomes a key barrier to progressing to tertiary education. Passed rate are considerably lower for boys than girls.

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R: I applied, I went to the interview, but they didn’t accept me because I don’t have a Tawjihi certificate. I was also wearing the veil . I felt that they didn’t like the veil, so I decided to never go back there again … And then when I decided to apply, the allowed age was finished for me … I have them (certificates) now, but my age now is above 28. (FGD with Syrian women aged 19 - 32 living in Zaatari camp)

Reasons for not attending school

Apprenticeship experience

R: Yes, there are a lot of young people who took sewing courses and work now in the Hussein factories Sewing is the only career that gives [women] work opportunities outside the camp (FCS with 40 year old father living in Zaatari)

• Few respondents in both the quantitative and qualitative survey were aware of or had participated in apprenticeships. Thus less than a quarter of youth female and male (15 -19) were aware of opportunities for apprenticeships. The percentage increases to 30% among male 20 to 25, but remains very low among female same age. It appears there are more opportunities for apprenticeship in Amman by the fact that respondents in the quantitative survey living in Amman had a greater awareness of available apprenticeships.
• Commonly mentioned apprenticeship programmes included Lumminus (77%), Orange (12%) and GIZ (6%). Other responses included: Vocational training centres in general, Marka institute for hospitality and tourism training and NRC.
• A very small number of respondents in the quantitative survey (and only 3 in the qualitative survey) indicated having ever worked as apprenticeship, and this participation is slightly but statistically significantly higher among older youth, and Syrian in host communities as opposed to those in camps.
• Most respondents showed interest in participating in the future as an apprentice in both the quantitative and qualitative surveys, though respondents from the qualitative survey also noted potentially challenges including that girls may not being allowed to take part.
• While evidence indicates that those youth who have done apprentice had the highest level of employability as per the multidimensional scale constructed, in the qualitative survey it was felt that promises and expectations to be taken in by the company after the apprenticeship was rarely maintained.

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Reflections

• Girls sometimes doing better than boys in terms of completing school, but progressing beyond schools remains a challenge …
• Value of non-formal education, TVET, apprenticeships vs university … 
• Employability as measured by the scale, shows no differences by gender or socio-economic status, but when it comes to participation in the labour force or avoiding unemployment, the gaps are marked
• Participating in apprenticeships and higher levels of formal education seems to lead to greater employability as measured by the scale
• Even if skills and knowledge are high, the job opportunities are restricted, especially for girls (supply side)
• Even if Syrians manage to obtain employment, differential treatment, harsher work conditions, have no recourse, less rights, no options but to continue …
• Work permits play a large role in influencing access to jobs, political economy dimension
• Gender norms are changing, but slowly, they are still ‘sticky’, not necessarily changing in a linear way and differentially affect boys and girls ..  But overall in ‘right’ direction for female empowerment 

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Thank You!

Annex (for Q&As)

Dimensions of employability

• Self-control as the label indicates needs to do with emotional intelligence, controlling anger, frustration and avoiding bad temper. All groups show low level of self-control which could be an area to develop in vocational trainings or at school.
• Employment risks has to do with reliability at work, persevering when tasks are difficult, organization skills, capacity to perform tasks promptly. Interestingly, respondents with secondary education completed, or with apprenticeship experience have higher score in this dimension.
• Job seeking behaviour is related to knowledge and confidence on how to seek a job. All groups show also low values compared to other dimensions, with those who completed secondary education presenting the highest competency in this dimension, followed by those who have apprenticeship experience.

Dimensions of employability

Dimensions of employability

• Self-learning is the dimension where respondents show the highest level of competency. This dimension is about the capacity and disposition to learn, seeking help, and paying attention to develop oneself. While all groups have high competency in this dimension, those respondents with apprenticeship experience have the highest level among all, while those with moderate disability display the lowest across the groups.
• Protective behaviour refers to efficacy and confidence to achieve what one is set to do, or being effective at work. The groups with higher competency in this dimension are those with apprenticeship experience, those with secondary education completed and those in employment. Respondents with moderate disability show statistically significant lower level, followed by those respondents who are unactive doing domestic obligations.
• Occupational expertise refers to the capacity to perform task at work, including taking prompt decisions, provide information to others, assist colleagues with questions, weight “pros” and “cons” of certain decisions at work. Again, the highest competency in this dimension is observed among those with apprenticeship experience, those with secondary education completed and those in employment. While respondents with moderate disability show the lowest level closely followed by those respondents who are unactive doing domestic obligations.
• Flexibility refers to the capacity to anticipate and adapt to changes in the workplace. The same pattern is again observed with highest competency levels among those with apprenticeship experience, secondary level competed, and in employment. The lowest level are again observed among respondents with moderate disability, and those occupied with domestic obligations.