Role and Goals of Vocational Training Department

Among the primary goals that motivated the federation of Palestinian Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture to establish this department was to play a role in supporting the private sector through upgrading the efficiency of the Palestinian of the Palestinian laborers and develop their compesencies for the high ultimate goal of increasing the quality of Palestinian productions.
The federation identified that the private sector suffered from lack of capacities and compesencies, which have negative effects on the Palestinian production. The federation decided to play a role besides the efforts exerted by the authorities specialized in this field, such as the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Education and other private training institutions. The federation wanted to cooperate with these establishments in meeting the needs of the private sector, especially that the Federation of Palestinian Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture is the representative of the Palestinian Chambers which themselves represent the private sector and are interested in its concerns. This was the basis for the decision taken to establish the Department of Vocational Training at the beginning of 1997. The department assumed its functions and duties at the early days of its establishment.

Specific Objectives of the Department of Vocational Training

• Studying the needs and wants of the private sector, exploring the means required for meeting these needs and wants through the Palestinian Chambers, and organizing vocational training courses in the different governorates, with direct planning and designing by the Department of Vocational Training in the federation, and in cooperation with the Chambers for meeting needs and wants.
• Studying the Palestinian Chambers’ needs in the area of training courses and equipment, exploring the means of meeting there needs, organizing courses for Chambers’ employees, and purchasing the equipment needed.
• Seeking sources for funding these courses and purchasing the equipment.

Courses Planned by the Vocational Training Department

The program of these courses was designed in cooperation with the Hebron Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a number o German experts representing the Cologne Chamber of Skilled Crafts. The courses are run by trainers who attended a training course in the German city of Cologne, especially designed for training at these courses. A number of these courses were held in the Laboratories of the College of Engineering and Technology in Hebron. Other courses will be held in Hebron and other West Bank cities soon, in cooperation with the other Chambers.
It is worth mentioning here that there is cooperation between the Vocational Training Department  and the Palestinian Ministry of Labour for approving the certificates awarded at these courses after participants successfully pass an examination. These courses target the following groups: factories and workshops of all kinds and sizes. They aim at upgrading the standard of the employees in order to achieve better products.

Among these courses are:

1. PLC course
2. Electricity basics course
3. Machine maintenance and repair course
4. Mold making course

The courses to be offered in the future are:

1. The Automobile electricity course
2. Detecting automobile faults course

The following are example of the courses being planned for by the Vocational Training Department:

1. Marketing course
2. Accounting and bookkeeping course
3. ISO 9000 course
4. Administration course
5. Cash-flow management course

The following are examples of some training courses for employees at Palestinian Chambers:

• Windows 95 + Word 7
• Internet pages design
• Excel + Access + Novel + Internet use

After this brief glimpse of the Vocational Training Department, we would like to express our willingness to cooperate with the local and International establishments for the sake of  upgrading the vocational training system in the Autonomous areas. We also invite you to benefit from our experience in the field of organizing and holding vocational courses(sessions). We are fully ready to organize and hold vocational courses according to needs. We also aspire to establish a vocational training institution under the supervision of the Federation of Palestinian Chambers. We hope that our department will be part of your areas of interest. We are fully ready to meet with you and respond to all your inquiries.