Overview of Healthcare Training Programs in Yemen

Education For Employment Yemen (EFE-Yemen) was formed as a local initiative in 2008 in response to the crisis of youth unemployment in Yemen to connect disadvantaged Yemeni youth to employment opportunities so that they can achieve their potential and strengthen their communities. Since its inception, it has trained over 4,900 youth to the world of work despite operating in a very challenging political and economic environment. Thirty-eight percent of EFE-Yemen’s student trainees have been female, double the Yemeni national average for female labor force participation.

Given the widespread critical need for humanitarian assistance in Yemen, EFE-Yemen worked directly to resolve critical labor shortages in the healthcare sector to address the urgent need for medical services in Yemen while simultaneously providing sustainable employment and livelihood opportunities for youth. EFE-Yemen has done so through two significant projects: the Capacity Building for High Quality Growth (CBHG) Project funded by the U.S. Department of State Office of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and the Medical Employment Development (MED) Project funded by Catholic Relief Services.

Healthcare Training Program Design

EFE-Yemen’s core program offering is its Job Placement Training Program, targeted towards local, unemployed youth with academic backgrounds relevant to the healthcare sector. In partnership with local hospitals and medical facilities, EFE-Yemen developed a strong curriculum that aligns with employer needs, which includes Soft skills, English for Medical Purposes, Computer Literacy, and an immersive technical apprenticeship at a medical facility for student trainees. The healthcare training program is delivered in a two-fold approach: in-classroom technical and soft skills training and intensive technical apprenticeships at local hospitals.

Project Impact

At the conclusion of the training, EFE-Yemen places program graduates into full-time jobs in the healthcare sector with employer partners. Most of the job placements are a result from pre-commitments arranged prior to the start of the programming as well through job fair events arranged by EFE-Yemen for students to meet private sector employers, market their skills, explore career opportunities within a variety of companies, and be better informed about the job market. Some of the positions that EFE-Yemen graduates have filled include: Nurse, Midwife, Lab Technician, Food Program Coordinator, Dental Technician, Pharmacist, Lab Assistant, Health Educator, X-Ray Technician, and Doctor’s Assistant.

Capacity Building for High-Quality Growth Project

From 2014 to 2017, EFE-Yemen’s Healthcare Training Program for the CBHG Project addressed the critical humanitarian need for medical care in Yemen while providing unemployed Yemeni youth with access to economic opportunities. EFE-Yemen’s programming focused on meeting the need of local hospitals and medical centers for qualified, trained healthcare staff in the midst of its civil war and concurrent humanitarian crisis. The program combines classroom training in soft skills, English medical vocabulary, and basic computer literacy with a two-month technical apprenticeship at medical facilities to provide students with technical training in a classroom and on-the-job setting. EFE-Yemen’s apprenticeship and employer partners for this project included: Science & Technology University and Al-Salam Hospital in Sana’a, Alburaihi Private Hospital and Babel Private Hospital in Aden, Toor Seyna Health Center and Alshefa Hospital in Lahj and Alrazi Public Hospital and the Motherhood & Childhood Center in Abyan.

Medical Employment & Development Project

In 2019, EFE-Yemen partnered with Catholic Relief Services to implement the MED Project to increase access to economic opportunities for Yemeni youth and humanitarian aid provisions through targeted, market-driven training, job placement and apprenticeship opportunities in Sana’a and Aden. EFE-Yemen continues to establish critical partnerships with a number of medical facilities experiencing shortages of skilled staff and capacity building, and such partnerships include Modern European Hospital in Sana’a and Al-Sadaqa Hospital in Aden. The MED Project aims to enroll and graduate youth from Healthcare Job Training & Placement programs as well facilitate completion of technical apprenticeships with local hospitals. EFE-Yemen is working to place successful graduates of the program into jobs with partnering hospitals, medical facilities, and NGOs working in the healthcare field in Sana’a and Aden.