On the 6^th of January of 2022, the Salfit Development Association organised a Skills4Sports stakeholder meeting at the public centre of Salfit, Palestine. The event was held in cooperation with the local municipality and attended by representatives of 40 entities of the public and private sector, youth and women’s centres, NGOs and sports organisations, representatives of the Ministry of Education and other Government agencies, as well as the Mayor of Salfit who gave a welcome speech.

Palestine is presented with a difficult and challenging situation in terms of unemployment. Over a third of Palestinian youth are NEETs (Not in Employment, Education or Training). The number of women who are NEETs is much higher than that of men. More specifically, 36% of Palestinian youth (both men and women) aged 15-29 are NEETs and 66% of the NEETs who belong to this age group are women. Skills4Sports is a project that makes a significant contribution to the effort to address this difficult situation. The aim of the project is to provide young NEETs with a variety of practical skills (such as communication, management, IT, marketing, intercultural, research, analysis, leadership, administrative skills, etc.)  that will be useful for them in their search for employment in the sports sector.

The meeting in Salfit brought together a diverse group of organisations whose representatives participated actively in the conversations, sharing their thoughts and suggestions. Remarks regarding the project were offered by Ms. Eng Areen and Dr. Alaa Sulaiman, both of the Salfit Development Association. The group of organisations attending the meeting decided to form an alliance and signed a memorandum, committing to support Palestinian youth through the development of 12 training courses, which will be addressed to 35 trainees per course. They also agreed to support the project by attending meetings and other events organised in the framework of Skills4Sports and by promoting the project among their staff and communities, encouraging them to participate in Skills4Sports activities, especially training courses.