In a previous newsletter, we already mentioned how Jordanian vocational students impressed us with their enthusiasm, creativity, and skills in identifying business opportunities for Jordanian farmers as well as problems facing the sector.
Students from the Al-Farook school and Al-Zamalieh school, both located in the Jordan Valley, were pitted against each other in a student challenge in a hotel in Amman. In the months leading up to the challenge, three female groups and three male groups worked together on solutions and/or business opportunities for the sector and presented their ideas to a jury of representatives from the private sector and Just University.
Several groups tested their ideas in their schools, recorded them on video and showed their results during this event. The jury assessed the ideas based on their innovativeness and feasibility, but also the presentation, communication, and collaborative skills of the students. Students also had to answer questions from the jury.
Some of the ideas they worked on, include how to make soap from olive waste; how to reduce feed waste for goats via a simple alternative fodder system; how to prepare organic manure at the farm level; and how to use urea treatment of straw for animal feed.
The jury selected two winning teams, but the fact that this young generation showed so much spirit in expressing themselves and thinking out of the box makes them all winners in their own right.
This great day was the end of our two-year Jordan Nuffic-funded program where we worked with teachers from these two vocational schools. We jointly developed better links with industry and improved the students’ knowledge and skills.
For more information, please contact Engelie Beenen.
