“Knowledge is the Power” When it Comes to Employment!

Empowering youth with professional skills necessary to secure jobs

The spread of fraud and cyber-crimes in Jordan is on the rise. In 2019, the Cyber Crimes Unit recorded over than 6,000 complaints within the country’s Criminal Investigation Department. Poorer regions in Jordan suffer higher instances of cyber-crimes and fraud due to lack of knowledge on the subject. For example, in the community of Bader, located to the east of Amman, the unemployment rate is 24%. People there often fall victim to false job vacancy advertisements posted online. The fraudsters take advantage of how desperate are youth and people to get a job, the fraud schemes include tricking them into providing personal information by announcing false employment claims.

“My first thought after I fell victim to an online fraudulent job vacancy was: “How can I prevent others from doing the same?” I knew I had to share the skills I learned with others so that they could be successful as well.”

Nizar Rumman, 26 years old residing in Bader, Nizar has previously fell victim to these scams. Determined not to fall for such a trap again, Nizar took it upon himself to learn how to navigate and spot online fraud schemes and fraudsters. By doing so, Nizar realized that though there are fraudsters with false jobs announcements, there are still plenty of real jobs vacancies, and that he wasn’t motivated to apply, because he did not have the skills needed to create and format his CV in a professional manner. Nizar comments: “It was at this moment I committed myself to not only continue learning more about digital security and recognizing online scams, but to learning to create a professional CV and teaching others to do the same.”

Nizar wanted to help youth in his local community first, so with the support of USAID YouthPower, he launched his own initiative in 2019 titles “Knowledge is the Power of Society”. Nizar’s initiative aims to provide youth with skills necessary to write their own professional CVs and navigate potential online scams. Nizar also widened his desire to achieve positive youth commitment and social inclusion by dedicating time to writing CVs for youth with disabilities and teaching them how to detect online fraud schemes as well.

Despite the challenges Nizar faces by the government-imposed curfew to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Nizar believes that this initiative is too important to put on hold. As a result, he shifted his work entirely commenced from home. He now communicates and reaches others using online platforms to continue the spread of his messages. “During the curfew, everyone is always at home and online. My message is needed now more than ever.” Nizar has already reached hundreds of young people in Bader, equipping them with the skills necessary to be successful in their job search. “As I look to the future, I hope this knowledge reaches everyone. I hope that those who have benefitted will go on to share the knowledge they have learned with their friends, so that this messaged is conveyed all across Jordan to help those in need.”

USAID YouthPower continues to empower youth to act as engaged citizens and productive members of society to advocate for themselves and to shape services designed to better prepare them to enter higher education, vocational training and the workforce. In addition to Bader community, USAID YouthPower supported more than 100 youth lead initiatives in 60 communities including Bader.