Al-Quds Open University’s Gaza Branch organized a series of workshops on self-employment with the goal of promoting the culture of self-employment across borders.
Dr. Nader Helles, Director of the Gaza Branch, inaugurated the workshop by highlighting QOU’s aspirations to provide its graduates with skills that keep up with the era of technological development, to build and develop their capabilities, and the need to change the methods used to find jobs, particularly given the growing number of graduates and the shortage of available positions.
Dr. Abdullah Khudary, the workshop’s supervisor, emphasized the significance of the workshop in fostering an international work culture and improving graduate students’ employment prospects by equipping them with knowledge and skills in line with labor market demands. The two workshops’ main topics included defining online freelance work and its components, outlining various international platforms and how to sign up for them, and applying for job openings.
The six days training workshops include 30 training hours and target 50 graduates.
First Session:
The meeting dealt with an introduction to the training workshop and its objectives, the expected training outcomes, ice-breaking activities, and a preliminary explanation about freelancing, its concept, and its meaning.
Monday 23/01/2023
Group 1:
Tuesday 24/01/2023
Group 2:
Second Session:
The second session focused on a detailed definition of freelancing, identifying the meaning of the word “Independent”, which is the person who works as a freelancer, as well as differentiating between self-employment and entrepreneurship. It also talked about the technical requirements of freelancing, and explained the meaning of hard skills and soft skills. The training also discussed the most important time management mechanisms, as well as the rules for prioritizing freelancing.
Wednesday 25/01/2023
Group 1:
Saturday 28/01/2023
Group 2:
Third Session:
The third meeting focused on the correct methods of self-marketing, where the trainees were trained to write a professional profile, introduced them to the sites needed to help them create a professional profile. They were also introduced to pricing the service mechanism through an Excel program, in addition to how to create a profile on LinkedIn business platform.
Sunday 29/01/2023
Group 1:
Monday 30/01/2023
Group 2:
Fourth Session:
The fourth meeting dealt with an explanation of freelancing platforms. It discussed the “Mostaql” platform, where the trainees were trained to register on the platform, as well as create a personal account, the mechanism to get opportunities and apply for various projects. The trainees were also trained on the ethics of freelancing and the rules of self-employment platforms in order to work with transparency, integrity, and respect.
Tuesday 31/01/2023
Group 1:
Wednesday 1/02/2023
Group 2:
Fifth Session:
The meeting focused on how to write work proposals in a professional manner. They were also trained on the AIDA model in attracting the reader. In addition, “Khamsat” platform for freelancing was explained, and a registration was made on the platform for all the trainees. They were also trained on how to present their offers in a professional way in trying to get business opportunities.
Saturday 4/02/2023
Group 1:
Sunday 5/02/2023
Group 2:
Sixth Session:
This meeting consisted of two parts: an explanation of the international platforms through which the trainees can work, such as the Freelancer platform and the Upwork platform, and the differentiation between foreign and Arabic platforms and the opportunities available in both. A comprehensive review was also made, and follow-up mechanisms were determined for the coming days, as was the readiness to follow up with the trainees in order to capture different work opportunities.
Monday 6/02/2023
Group 1:
Tuesday 7/02/2023
Group 2:
