Specto Held the Digital Empowerment and

Entrepreneurship for Refugees (DEER)

Final Conference

Specto held the final conference of the Digital Empowerment and Entrepreneurship for Refugees (DEER)

that brought together over 100 representatives of key partners, universities, NGOs, and beneficiaries.

The DEER project is funded through the “Bottlenecks Alleviation Program (BAP)”. BAP is implemented

by Nuffic and funded by the European Union through the Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian

Crisis “Madad” and managed by the German Jordanian University.

The opening speech of Prof. Ahmad Abu El Haija focused on the impact of trending technology on the

future and the importance of obtaining the necessary skills to cope with this change.

The German Jordanian University’s representative Dr. Sameer Al-Dahidi gave welcome remarks and

shed light on the role of the university in implementing the EDU Syria program.

Mrs. Lara Nassar, the Regional Nuffic Office Representative, talked about the great impact of the DEER

project on the refugees and underprivileged citizens

The conference featured presentations by project partners who shared their insights on the project’s

outcomes and impact.

The overall objective of the DEER project is to equip Syrian refugees and underprivileged Jordanians

with digital skills to become independent entrepreneurs, work as freelancers, or become more relevant to

the job market.

ICDL modules, such as digital marketing, image editing, web editing, computer and online essentials,

online collaboration, standard and advanced office applications were carefully categorized into groups

representing highly demanded jobs in the market.

The conference was an opportunity to showcase the achievements and celebrate the success stories of the

beneficiaries. Fadwa, one of the students that completed the Document Specialist course said, “The skills

I gained helped me format my book without asking for help and this made me feel like a successful

author”. Mahmoud also expressed his gratitude for gaining valuable skills from the ICDL modules that

enabled him to generate income through creating brochures, logos, tests, CVs, and others. Another

successful candidate is Ala’a, she managed to create a website that represents her art work with a variety

of greeting cards and calendars.

At the end of the conference, Specto, The German Jordanian University, and Nuffic handed out honouring

plaques for the partners that contributed to the implementation of the DEER project and the centers that

successfully delivered the ICDL programs over the years.