Since September 2019, the Center for Continuing Education (CCE) main activities are classified in three main programmatic areas: poverty reduction and economic empowerment through its major umbrella program “B-Hub”, transforming education through the Experiential Learning Objects “xLOBs” and professional development with emphasis on the future of work.
B-Hub
The work of the B-Hub continues this year with 35 start-ups that are ready to launch. Since September 2019, thirteen new startups were established, which are added to the 27-startups that have already been inaugurated since 2017). Additional 22 micro and small enterprises began to receive business support services (in addition to the 116 since 2017).
One of Birzeit University’s B-Hub startups, Tollabco, entered a global competition that gathered 200,000 competitors from universitiesworldwide , and shared the second and fifth place with other startups.
Another B-Hub beneficiary, Muayad Rimawi, a student at Birziet University, won the Ramallah Municipality green competition award.
During the past three months, B-Hub has been awarded three new projects: Switchmed (innovative environmental solutions and green startups, and an extension to the existing project Obader,) a new project with CARE-Norway, and a project with AVSI providing business support services to people with disabilities. The total value of the projects is in the range of $1 million.
Experiential Learning Objects (xLOBs)
Since September 2019, an additional 100 schools began to deploy xLOBs for grades 1 through 4, bringing the total number of schools to 320. The development and piloting of xLOBs for grades five and six started in 20 schools. A third team of teacher trainers were trained, and a new partnership with UNRWA was established, and training for 20 UNRWA schools got underway.
A new extensive research study measuring the impact of xLOBs on student attitudes towards learning, acquisition of life-skills and teacher practices started (the fifth research since the beginning of the xLOBs project in 2011). The center was awarded two new projects: one on integrating xLOBs for inclusive education with UNESCO targeting approximately 150 schools, and the other with UNICEF targeting an additional 100 schools. The value of the two projects is approximately $400K (on-year).
Professional Development and the Future of work
The new program titled “Stepping Stones into the Future of Work” is in full thrust: a training program was designed and implemented for three groups of fresh graduates on the digital economy, and in fintech andfinance. A program titled “A journey in Data Science” was also launched and the first iteration of four planned iterations) was started.
The design for a program titled “Fintech for Accountants” is currently underway.
A new professional diploma program in sports management was developed and launched. It builds on the program implemented in partnership with Fifa. A new iteration of the Supply Chain Management diploma (import/export) in partnership with the Shipper’s council was started, and elements of the diploma in addition to some business counseling are being applied to a sub project for vulnerable women. The Counseling diploma was upgraded and started in partnership with the Palestine Counseling Center. A training program for Judges Incorporating Rights concept in the Work of Judges (with emphasis on violence against women) also got underway during this reporting period.
