Technology is changing the future of work. And there’s no reason refugees and vulnerable host communities should be left behind in the process.
Those with the skills to take advantage of shifting work skills have the chance to lift themselves and their families out of poverty—and to build strong foundations in their respective home and host countries. If crisis does strike, remote digital work means those who are forced to move don’t have to lose their livelihoods along with their homes. The flip-side is that in the coming years people without digital skills will fall further behind.
To address this, WFP’s EMPACT programme partners with leading tech firms to teach digital skills through vocational training. A basic, six-week course covers fundamental IT skills. This is followed by advanced training, apprenticeships and, critically, a connection to online work.
Around the globe, there is a growing demand for lower-skilled, labor-intensive digital services, such as data entry, data cleaning, photo editing, and image annotation. EMPACT graduates are ideally situated to start such work from wherever they live, and keep working wherever they may go. Best of all, with the tools they learn during the advanced course and continued on-the-job training, graduates have everything they need to grow into higher-skilled, better paying jobs.
Since 2016, WFP's EMPACT programme has trained more than 18,000 students across twelve campuses in Lebanon and Iraq; 65 percent of participants are female. In Iraq, almost 20 percent of students generated an income through online work and 33 percent of alumni were employed 4 months after graduating.