Jordanians share experiences from India’s Technical & Cooperation Programme

AMMAN — Tens of Jordanians who attended the Indian Technical and Cooperation (ITEC) Programme joined on Tuesday to celebrate the opportunity and share their experiences. 

Minister of State for Investment Affairs Muhannad Shehadeh, who attended the ceremony, highlighted the importance of the training opportunities, provided through the ITEC programme, to contribute towards capacity building of Jordanian human resources.

Noting that the two countries enjoy “very close” friendship, both politically and economically, he voiced appreciation of further “building blocks” being put in place for the benefit of people in both countries.   

Addressing the attendees, India’s Ambassador to Jordan  Shubhdarshini Tripathi said that ITEC’s main concept is that India believes in “sharing”, including knowledge sharing. 

Its basic philosophy is “The whole world is your family,” she said, reiterating the importance of knowledge-sharing as a capacity building tool.

‘Demand driven’

The fully funded training opportunities under ITEC cover various fields, including IT, English language and business management.  Most importantly, ITEC is “demand-driven”, according to Puneet Ghai, an embassy official. 

Participants can come from both government and private entities who wish to develop their skills, as long as they meet the eligibility criteria. 

This year, 50 slots have been allotted to Jordanian citizens. 

Alumni 

“When I came back, I felt this was one of my most important accomplishments in 2017,” said Rana Obaidat, a Ministry of Telecommunications employee, who returned from India on Sunday. 

Obaidat has completed a two-month IT training in Hyderabad, she told The Jordan Times at the event, noting that it was a great learning experience. 

Additionally, Rula  G. Wardeh Sakkab, a director of a yoga project, who has received ITEC training, said she was pleased to finally find a programme focusing on yoga. 

For Mahmood Salmonah, a Planning Ministry employee, his ITEC training programme was about the Indian experience in developing skills and creating employment.

“Of course, this training reflected on my work. I work in the area of economic and social productivity enhancement projects. Through the training, we got the idea to fund projects that work on skill development.  Instead of funding a supermarket startup, for example, we consider financing a tailoring workshop which focuses on skill development and recruiting women.” 

In India, they work to create job opportunities and train people according to the needs of each area, he added. 

Participants should have some work experience since each programme is tailored for a certain level and the programme builds on previous skills, he noted.

Furthermore, Salmonah spoke about   the “great opportunity to visit a country like India and see a civilisation that is over 3,000 year old”. 

Those who join ITEC “bring back a little bit of India with them” and contribute to the development of relations, which is part of ITEC’s goals, the ambassador noted during Tuesday’s ceremony. 

India took the decision to set up ITEC programme, based on its belief that it was necessary to establish mutual relations that are not only built on commonly held ideals and aspirations, but also on solid economic foundations, according to ITEC’s website. 

More information on the ITEC programme can be found via its website: http://itec.mea.gov.in.