World Learning believes that the best hope for peace, justice, and sustainability lies in bringing people together. Through cultural immersion, experiential learning, and information sharing, our programs equip others to collaboratively address the most pressing issues of our time.
Throughout my years at World Learning, I have had the fortunate opportunity to meet with many of our participants, partners, and alumni—a global network of learners. Our programs help them understand other cultures, master new skills, and cultivate networks. Our teaching and training methodologies empower them to find locally relevant, sustainable, and implementable solutions. Our approaches emphasize flexibility and adaptability that help them tackle real-world problems. They, in turn, make extraordinary changes in their lives and communities.
Please join us—and those we work with and serve around the world—in our pursuit to create a brighter and better future for all.
Carol Jenkins | CEO, World Learning
Allen Cutler | Chair, Board of Trustees
Teacher trainees experience a UDL-designed programming activity.
Last month, World Learning Algeria partnered with international inclusive education advocates to publish a white paper on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The paper, titled “Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Impact on Policy, Practice, and Partnership for Inclusive Education,” is at the forefront of efforts to expand the knowledge and practice of UDL in international development education.
The UDL approach adapts teaching to all learners and their diverse individual needs to reduce barriers to learning. It stems from the principle that all learners, regardless of their needs or background, must have ample opportunities to learn, set goals, and gain skills for the future.
Led by country representative and program director Leah Bitat, World Learning Algeria has practiced UDL across its diverse portfolio of projects for the past 10 years in Algeria. The Algiers STEAM Center has presented on using UDL to reduce barriers to STEM education over the past three years at the Universal Design for Learning International Research Network Global Summits.
Bitat, who did her graduate work in education at Harvard University with David Rose, the founder of the UDL framework, is a member of the Global Campaign for Education Inclusive Education Steering Committee. She co-chaired a side event at the 2021 Global Education Summit with Dr. Loui Lord Nelson, another well-known scholar in the UDL field.
Joined by a diverse team of international education practitioners, the session included an interactive presentation on the impact of UDL on policy, research, education systems, and classrooms, and drove the need for the publication of a white paper to capture the knowledge shared.
Teachers celebrate their graduation from the UDL in STEM training.
“Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Impact on Policy, Practice, and Partnership for Inclusive Education” is the first white paper to capture insights on the impact of UDL in international education efforts through a knowledge-sharing event, rather than a literature review or independent study. The quality of the paper reflects how a diverse set of practitioners and participants came together from around the world to advance the knowledge and application of UDL.
The paper aims to move the discussion on UDL from broad-based theoretical recommendations to practical insights on implementation. It amplifies real-world recommendations by practitioners to increase impact in their current initiatives.
“The beauty of UDL is that it is a design framework, not a theory or product,” says Bitat. “It can be adapted to any educational environment. Because of that, UDL has experienced rapid application across World Learning Algeria’s project sites due to the positive impact that UDL-designed learning environments bring — not just to the students who learn in them, but especially for the teachers that feel a heightened sense of efficacy as creators of inclusive learning environments.”
With its recommendations for real-world application, “Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Impact on Policy, Practice, and Partnership for Inclusive Education” ensures that international development education sees more inclusive learning environments for students worldwide.
To learn more and access the white paper, click here.
The project helped nearly 24,000 Algerian youth strengthen their potential to earn income and effectively manage their finances. World Learning provided technical support to partner institutions across Algeria, training community mentors to teach youth two critical skill sets: personal financial management and 21st-century job skills.
Over the project period, World Learning trained 713 community mentors to deliver the two course offerings and provided technical and logistical support as those mentors trained 22,544 youth in 42 wilayas (states). The project also strengthened the capacities of 51 local partner organizations capable of delivering project activities in the future.
With partners in 14 Wilayas, the
two-year program will build personal finance and job skills for 27,000 youth
On January 19, HSBC Holdings plc and World Learning launched a new project to help Algerian youth manage their finances and earn an income.
In collaboration with local schools, student clubs, and youth organizations in 14 wilayas, the 21st Century Financial Resilience through Education and Employment (21 FREE) project will train more than 600 community mentors to teach youth personal financial management and job skills. World Learning will provide technical support to the mentoring institutions and educators over the two-year program, which aims to train 27,000 youth.
Modules
will cover budgeting, communications, critical thinking, and job search skills.
Following a three-month pilot phase in Algiers, Sétif, and Ouargla, the program
will expand to an additional eleven communities, targeting underserved areas.
“In the face of the socio-economic challenges in Algeria and around the world that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought, HSBC and World Learning are committed to equipping youth with the skills they need to build successful careers and contribute to the development of the local economy,” said Leah Bitat, World Learning Algeria country representative.
“One
of the four pillars of HSBC’s global strategy is to energize for growth, which
means investing to attract, develop, and retain the talented individuals who
will lead business into the future by nurturing a dynamic and diverse culture
for people who want to make a positive impact in the community. The 21 FREE program
is aligned with the Algeria National Vision 2030 where HSBC is investing in
local talent and the development of Algerians as future leaders in the banking
and finance sector,” says James Fielder, CEO of HSBC in Algeria. “The aim is to
facilitate opportunities, generate meaningful income, and instill effective
planning and managing of financial capabilities for disadvantaged communities.”
World
Learning has worked in Algeria since 2005, partnering with local institutions
to bring high-quality education for youth in the fields of Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), English, and career development. More than
20,000 Algerians have received support as they started careers or implemented community
and business ventures.
Schools, student clubs,
and youth organizations interested in partnering to host trainings in their
communities can contact World Learning at [email protected].
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the whole world was forced to pivot to new ways of doing things, World Learning was able to use its long-standing expertise in online and hybrid teaching and training. At the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) conference, World Learning staff discussed projects focused on professional development for teachers and workforce development, all of which had to abruptly pivot to online programming early in the pandemic. Their presentations reviewed the opportunities this presented to refine and improve programs as well as the challenges they faced in quickly shifting to virtual programming.
Enhancing Online Learning with Local Peer Coaching Groups
Lois Scott-Conley, education advisor for curriculum and training, presented on World Learning’s U.S. Embassy–funded Madrassa English Language Teacher Training program in India. Over the past three years, the program has offered a blended learning professional development program for traditionally underserved Madrassa teachers. The program combines self-paced, expert-designed online courses with local peer coaching groups. Scott-Conley discussed the peer coaching format, how the program is being carried out solely online, and research that was carried out to help improve the program in its third year.
Career Mentorship at a Distance: Preparing Mentors to Teach and Engage Online
Hamza Koudri, director of programs for World Learning Algeria, presented on transitioning the Bawsala Mentorship Program, which provides career training, mentorship, and networking opportunities for young Algerian women, to an online format using the Canvas learning management platform. Moving the course online required new methods for training mentors to not only manage the online course platform but also to effectively build relationships with participants and keep them engaged during a virtual course.
Preparing Teachers to Teach Online: Lessons From a Case Study
Dr. Radmila Popvic, senior education and research specialist, presented a case study that examined how a cohort of 30 English language teachers integrated technology in their teaching after completing a five-week intensive training. The study explored teacher readiness to implement what they learned, their confidence about their digital and pedagogical skills, and practical difficulties or contextual constraints they encountered in implementing course learnings.
Ten Questions for The Experiment Digital Facilitator Djamila Azzouz
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Djamila Azzouz was a facilitator for The Experiment Digital programs in 2019 and 2020.
Djamila Azzouz is a 22-year-old Algerian student who worked as a facilitator for World Learning’s eight-week The Experiment Digital program in 2019 and 2020. The program is a virtual exchange designed to connect hundreds of young people across the U.S. with peers in Iraq, Algeria, Yemen, and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa Region. Trained facilitators play an essential role in the exchange, fostering safe and intimate group conversations between participants — both in virtual ‘neighborhoods’, groups of 30–35 participants and ‘families’, small groups of 6–8 participants.
Azzouz is currently working on a master’s degree in Anglo Saxon literature and civilization and majoring in media studies at Abou EL Kacem Saâdallah University — also known as Algiers 2 — located in Algiers, the capital of Algeria. She is an alumna of World Learning’s Maharat Mentorship program, an eight-month training program designed to help young Algerian women develop leadership and professional skills.
Last summer, Azzouz was a facilitator for The Experiment Digital’s first cohort. When she’s not studying or facilitating, Azzouz teaches English and trains others in public speaking. She enjoys reading and drinking tea. We caught up with her at the end of her stint with The Experiment Digital to find out what her experience was like.
Tell us about the role of a facilitator for The Experiment Digital.
A facilitator is a combination of things that are really important — teaching and mentoring. For me, being a facilitator for The Experiment Digital is being the link between the participants and engaging them with the content of the program.
What kind of topics are covered?
The Experiment Digital participants are divided into neighborhoods and families facilitating small group discussions.
Each week we have a different topic, for example, during the first week we did topics related to self-discovery such as analyzing personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and what does leadership mean to you to introduce participants to each other. As we get deeper into the program, we talked about an area of improvement that you think would make your community better and a project proposal.
What does a typical week look like? What are some of your responsibilities?
Facilitators spend 8–10 hours a week working for the program. A week in which we have our family dialogue, that’s a really, really busy week. Otherwise facilitators are checking whether participants are moving on the right track, completing their activities, and engaging with others. In the morning when I wake up, I check my email and messages on Canvas [an online learning platform]. In the afternoon, I check again and see if there’s anything I have to keep an eye on.
It sounds like the family discussions are intense. Is your role to start them off and make sure they stay friendly even when people disagree?
In each neighborhood we have about 30–35 participants and it’s impossible to have one dialogue. So, we divided into small families. These family dialogues happen every two weeks, one hour each where we have a family that contains 6–8 participants. It can get really busy when everyone wants to share. Each week facilitators receive a guide from The Experiment Digital team that helps us facilitate a live dialogue on Zoom.
I always start by welcoming the participants and encouraging them to share and be open since it’s not recorded and it’s a safe space. We have general topics and I start asking questions to get the conversation going and the participants say what they think. During the last family discussion, we had time to talk about what we appreciated about each other and things we learned, and a lot of participants said thank you for making me see and learn things about myself.
You’ve been a facilitator twice. How did you prepare for this role?
Djamila Azzouz is majoring in media studies.
The training was 3 weeks [facilitators averaged 4 hours a week training]. They [The Experiment Digital team] gave us a lot of training material to learn about our tasks, our role, and the role of our peer mentor. We also did some activities. For example, they posted a video and we acted as if we were the participants and completed the exercise. It’s like what you do during soccer practice: some have to play the other team and then switch.
What was the best part of being a facilitator? How did you grow from the experience?
I think most facilitators would say that the best part is being part of the family dialogue. It’s the chance when we all get to really connect.
What advice do you have for someone interested in being a facilitator? What would you tell one of your friends if asked about what to expect?
One of my friends actually asked me this question! If I had to explain to someone what is facilitating for The Experiment Digital I would say it’s a two-month program where you have to transmit ideas and monitor the participants to see if they are following and completing the activities. It’s also about mentoring. You cannot really facilitate if you are not engaged in the outside world. It would be really hard to facilitate and understand others from different backgrounds if you weren’t interested in what’s going on. Advice I would give to someone who wants to apply is go for it. You will not regret it. Sometimes things aren’t perfect, and you think I can’t believe this happened but that’s ok because you’re learning. Just go for it. When I applied for the program the first time, I didn’t really know what I would do and what would be expected of me, but I did not regret it at all. That’s why I applied to do it again this summer. Since it’s World Learning I trusted it.
How do you think it will affect your future career prospects?
Djamila Azzouz is an alumna of World Learning’s Maharat Mentorship Program.
With facilitating and teaching at the same time I feel like I can easily manage a group of people without having any difficulty. Before I just wanted to teach and now, I want to teach but I also want to mentor and design programs. Because doing World Learning’s Maharat program I realized that’s possible. One day I’d like to work with World Learning Algeria.
What do you say to people who may be skeptical of virtual exchanges? How do you convince them that this is a worthwhile experience?
[Laughing] Even my mother doesn’t understand what I do. When I get ready to facilitate and I shut the door to the room she says ok you’re going to talk on the phone and I say no mom, I’m not talking on the phone. I’m working! It’s hard to explain. You have to see it for yourself.
What did you see for yourself that was life changing?
During one of the family dialogues when we were talking about stereotypes, I thought to myself this is why I applied to work with The Experiment Digital. When they were correcting each other’s presumptions and stereotypes and all of these ideas that we fill our heads with through media and social media were changing. A lot of them were saying, no, I don’t think that about you. I witnessed with my own eyes the change. It was amazing! Being part of an exchange program doesn’t necessarily mean travelling to another place. In some Middle Eastern countries, girls are not allowed to travel alone but The Experiment Digital is a really great opportunity to learn about others and learn about yourself all while staying at home behind the screen.
The Experiment Digital is supported by the Stevens Initiative, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government, and is administered by the Aspen Institute.
Entrepreneurship is key to helping economies thrive.
But start-ups across the world face serious obstacles — from wooing funders to navigating regulatory issues. That’s why it’s critical to make sure entrepreneurs have the support they need to thrive, too.
In Algeria, a new reality TV series aims to do just that.
Andi Hulm — Arabic for “I Have a Dream” — will feature 60 young Algerian entrepreneurs competing in challenges presented by representatives of leading U.S. companies operating in Algeria.
World Learning Algeria Field Director Andrew Farrand.
It marks World Learning’s first foray into the television business, and a new addition to its growing crop of entrepreneurship support programs worldwide. World Learning Algeria Field Director Andrew Farrand will host the 10-episode series, which has been conceived and sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Algiers and the American Chamber of Commerce in Algeria. World Learning will oversee development of the program alongside the local production company Wellcom Advertising.
“Algeria is full of dynamic young people with big ideas who struggle to get started or to sustain new ventures,” Farrand says. “Ultimately, the goal of Andi Hulm is to give them a boost that can make the difference between success and failure, while also reinforcing the expanding ties between Algeria and the U.S., which benefit people in both countries.”
The U.S. Embassy selected Farrand to host the show given his high profile as a development practitioner, blogger, and photographer who has lived in Algeria for more than six years.“They were interested in having someone who straddles the line between U.S. and Algerian cultures,” he says. “When they reached out to see if I might be interested, it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
As one of the partners producing the show, World Learning tapped into its extensive alumni network to recruit young entrepreneurs to participate in the series. Andi Hulm will also draw on the NGO’s experience designing programs that offer the comprehensive support these entrepreneurs need to thrive.
“We will be helping to guide the show’s production so it resonates with Algerian youth and considers the real-life hurdles they face in pursuing their professional dreams,” Farrand says.
Each episode of the show will feature different challenges to test contestants’ perseverance and entrepreneurial skills, such as defining a brand identity, recruiting qualified staff, pitching investors, and connecting with potential customers. A four-member panel of judges — composed of three Algerian entrepreneurs, plus the CEO of each episode’s host company — will evaluate participants’ performances and ultimately narrow the competition to a final winner.
Though the winner will take home a cash prize, the goal of the show is to ensure that all the contestants benefit. Throughout the course of each episode, participants will have the opportunity seek advice from the CEOs of leading U.S. companies as well as gain exposure among the Algerian public.
“The measure of the show’s success won’t be how grueling the competition is,” Farrand says, “but how much the contestants refine their ideas, forge useful new relationships, and advance toward their dreams.”
Andi Hulm will debut in February on the Algerian channel Ennahar TV and will later be rebroadcast online. Watch the trailer below to learn more:
Architect Farida Chaalal visits the construction site of residential area project.
Want to learn what it’s like to sell cars, lead a marketing team, or build a residential development? In this second installment of World Learning’s virtual reality career tour series, we head to Algeria to explore what working life is like for professionals across the country.
Through these self-guided virtual tours, you’ll step onto the floor of a Renault showroom in Setif, pull up a chair at a marketing team meeting in Algiers, and study the blueprint for a residential site in Tizi Ouzou. You’ll learn how these three professionals built their careers, the challenges they face, and the skills they need to do their jobs well — many of which they learned by participating in training courses at career development centers sponsored by the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative and World Learning.
These tours can be viewed on any ordinary smartphone or laptop — no special equipment is required. For a fully immersive experience, drop your phone into an inexpensive VR viewer (like the Google Cardboard viewer) and explore the scene just by turning your head!
First, step onto the floor of a Renault car showroom in Setif for a day in the life of car salesman Mohamed Taguia, who studied management and marketing at the MBI School Setif. Follow along as he discusses payment options with a client, then brainstorms marketing strategies with his colleagues. Taguia says he was always shy and never imagined he would one day have a job that requires talking with customers all day. He credits the soft skills courses at the MBI School Setif’s career development center — supported by the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative and World Learning — with helping him overcome that challenge.
Finally, join architect Farida Chaalal as she checks on the progress of a residential project overlooking Tizi Ouzou, one of the largest cities in Algeria. Chaalal specializes in civil engineering, meaning she focuses on the structural integrity of buildings. Learn about all the things she needs to take into account — like verifying that a window is level — as she develops the plan for the site. Then follow Chaalal back to her office, where she writes a report about the development and discusses new projects with her coworkers.
Chaalal says she was able to find a job in architecture consulting with help from the career center at the INSC Tizi Ouzou training institute. Supported by the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative and World Learning, the career center offered her valuable trainings in soft skills, job search strategies, and interview preparation.
Akila Gouacem is one of more than 9,000 Algerian youth who have participated in job trainings through the Youth Employment Project, funded by the Middle East Partnership Initiative and implemented by World Learning.
Entering the workforce can be daunting — if not seemingly impossible — for young people in a modern world where work opportunities are rapidly changing. That’s why youth workforce development practitioners are working in countries around the globe to help young people develop the hard and soft skills that will help them succeed in the 21st century workplace.
But, as in all development work, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Young people in one country may face a different set of obstacles from their peers in another country — and they may require different skills to overcome those obstacles. Context is essential.
In a new report, World Learning provides that context for the Algerian workforce, where young people face challenges such as regulatory obstacles, nepotism, gender discrimination, and more. Authored by World Learning’s Senior Youth Workforce Specialist Dr. Catherine A. Honeyman, the report asked: “What skills do youth most need in order to gain employment in Algeria?”
According to the qualitative research there are 12 soft skills and 6 functional job skills that can make a difference for Algerian youth seeking employment.
The Youth Employment Project has established career centers across Algeria, providing hard and soft skills training to more than 9,000 young people.
The research process — which was conducted by World Learning’s field office staff in Algeria — included interviews with Algerian employers as well as surveys and focus groups conducted with 90 employed and unemployed young men and women in six wilayas(administrative divisions) of Algeria who have taken part in trainings through World Learning’s Youth Employment Project (YEP), supported by the U.S. Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative. This qualitative research builds on the project’s large-scale quantitative tracer studies, reaching thousands of YEP graduates every six months.
“Local perspectives matter,” Honeyman wrote in the report. “While there may be robust international and regional research findings regarding the priority soft skills to emphasize for youth employment, the experiences of youth in a particular context — and the perspectives of their prospective future employers — must be taken into account in order to truly understand how to address the youth employment challenge.”
Soft skills were a key focus of the research.
In recent decades, there’s been a rising awareness in the global development community that soft skills make a difference in youth programming sectors such as workforce development, sexual and reproductive health, and peacebuilding. Large-scale literature reviews — such as one recently undertaken by USAID’s YouthPower initiative — have led to recommendations emphasizing five key soft skills that help improve youth workforce outcomes worldwide: positive self-concept, self-control, social skills, communication skills, and higher-order thinking skills.
These recommendations have solid grounding. Yet, as Honeyman notes in the report, “global recommendations can also sometimes miss the mark of what matters most to particular groups of youth in particular contexts — such as Algeria.”
Participants at YEP’s Youth Employment Summit 2.0 in 2016.
Algerian youth participants in the study identified nine priority soft skills that they felt to be crucial for finding employment in their country: positive self-concept, self-motivation, goal-orientation, social skills, communication skills, perseverance, adaptability, managing emotions — especially stress, and planning or time management. Employer interviews echoed many of these and also revealed a need for three additional soft skills: conscientiousness or work ethic, problem-solving, and professionalism.
“While some of these skills map onto the recommendations made in the international research literature, others highlight less-often prioritized skills,” the report notes.
Skills like perseverance and adaptability are particularly critical in an Algerian context. Not only is there a limited availability of entry-level work, but the work that does exist often pays low wages. Additionally, the country’s National Employment Agency — which serves as an intermediary between job-seekers and employers — often slows down the job search with regulations like residence requirements.
In these conditions, young job-seekers have found that soft skills pay off. As one young man recounted, “I decided to go volunteer at this factory. I went in every day even though they weren’t recruiting. I just helped around and filled in for any tasks they needed. They ended up hiring me because of my persistence.”
Chouaib Haddad took part in skills trainings at a career center that YEP established in his hometown, which led to him founding his own company.
In addition to soft skills, the report also identifies six functional job skills the Algerian youth need to improve in order to enter the workforce. These include, in order of the research data’s strength of evidence, language (English and French), general IT skills and software specific to their professions, career planning, job search strategies, CV and online profile creation, and job interviewing skills.
Though many of these skills are useful for job applicants anywhere, Algerian youth face a special challenge when it comes to language skills. Respondents indicated that they needed to improve in French or English — or both — in order to land jobs, even though neither is an official language of the country. For some, learning French is an emotionally charged task due to the country’s colonial past. “I hate French so much that I can’t really study it or learn it properly,” one participant noted.
So how can youth workforce development practitioners use the recommendations from this report to make a difference in the Algerian context?
Though YEP is already working to develop soft skills and functional job skills among Algerian youth through the WorkLinks Employability Skills Curriculum — which has reached more than 8,000 young people to date — the findings of this report will help World Learning staff refine that curriculum to meet the specific needs of Algerian job-seekers. (See the new curriculum in the chart below.)
With the help of this research, World Learning will continue building a future in which all young people and adults are equipped to find or create decent work.
Like many countries worldwide, Algeria is working to integrate young people into a dynamic and challenging global economy.
In July 2016, World Learning convened over 250 educators, employers, and officials for the inaugural Youth Employment Summit in Algiers. That event marked the public launch of the Algeria Youth Employment Project (YEP), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI).
At the summit, attendees learned from career development experts about the career development center model, along with international best practices and local examples for delivery of career services to help youth enter and succeed in the world of work.
Under the YEP project, World Learning has collaborated with private schools and associations to launch 9 career centers across Algeria. Since the first Summit, those centers have served over 7,000 young job-seekers through career orientation, soft skills and technical skills training, internship and job placement, employment fairs, and other services adapted to the needs of local employment markets.
The Youth Employment Summit 2.0 is a two-day conference, being held December 10-11 in Algiers, that will unite leading employers and government officials with representatives of public and private educational institutions, vocational training centers, private schools, and civil society organizations from across Algeria to explore career centers as a solution to modern employment challenges.
At the opening, the YEP career centers will join together to officially launch the first Algerian career center federation, which will work to spread the career center model nationwide for the benefit of Algerian youth. Employers and officials will be invited to meet the federation members to discuss possible collaboration.
Next, YEP career center staff and international experts will lead interactive workshops to guide participants in how to deliver effective career services to youth. With guidance from these professionals, participating institutions will explore ways to adapt the career center model to their local context, then will develop action-oriented workplans for offering career services to youth in their communities.
World Learning will also mark the close of the Maharat Mentorship Program, a highly successful pilot initiative sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Algeria linking young women job-seekers with established professionals.
World Learning is an international nonprofit organization advancing leadership through education, exchange, and sustainable development programs in more than 100 countries. Founded in 1932, the organization includes Global Development and Global Exchange divisions supported by the School for International Training (SIT), an accredited higher education institution providing world-class global education. World Learning has worked in Algeria since 2005. For more information, visit algeria.worldlearning.org, or contact us at [email protected].
World Learning Algeria Country Representative Leah Bitat presents at Tech Camp.
On any given day, you might hear the buzz of drones or see robots crashing into walls at World Learning’s STEAM Center in Algiers, Algeria.
In April 2016, World Learning opened the center focused on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) with support from the U.S. Embassy in Algeria, the Anadarko Algeria Company, Dow Chemicals, and Boeing Aeronautics. Here, grade school children from across the capital city come to learn all kinds of STEAM skills such as coding, programming, design thinking, virtual reality, and robotics.
World Learning Algeria Country Representative Leah Bitat
“When I was a teenager it was a big deal if you could do the Rubik’s Cube,” says World Learning Algeria Country Representative Leah Bitat. “Now you’re building a robot that can do the Rubik’s Cube.”
Last year, the Algiers STEAM Center sent Algeria’s first team of competitors to the FIRST Global Challenge, an international robotics competition that’s often likened to the Olympics of robotics. For the competition, the students learned how to build a robot that could collect and sort plastic balls as it moved across a playing field. They then had to work together to operate the robot in real time as they competed with teams from other countries to pick up the most balls.
Competitions like these are among the international exchanges that World Learning is celebrating this week for International Education Week. A joint initiative between the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education, International Education Week explores the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide.
In Algeria, those benefits are clear.
Team Algeria works on their robot at the First Global international robotics challenge.
For members of the robotics team, that international exchange was eye-opening.
“The opportunity to participate in that [competition] just explodes their minds with possibilities, different ways of working,” Bitat says. “They’re competing with other countries, so they learn a lot about different ways of thinking, different ways of working together, different ways of collaborating. And then that really feeds their continuing experience once they get back here.”
Participating in the robotics competition also strengthened the STEAM Center. When they returned to Algeria, the 2017 team members shared their observations and experiences from the competition. For example, they saw the importance of having a collaborative spirit: the teams that could come together under pressure performed well while those that did not collaborate often fell apart. The team also helped advise the 2018 robotics team, which won second place for the competition’s award for teams that documented their experience on social media.
“It was a great thing,” Bitat says. “Not just for robotics, but that whole process of designing something as a team, troubleshooting it, and working things out together in a collaborative way.”
International education and exchange opportunities also benefit Algeria more broadly. Bitat notes that the country can often feel disconnected from the rest of the world, as it’s difficult for Algerians to obtain a visa to get in or out. International exchanges and study abroad opportunities help bridge that disconnect. When Algerian students travel abroad—whether to the U.S., Turkey, or Bulgaria—they come back with knowledge that makes them better prepared for the workforce.
Students work on a STEM project at the Ouargla STEAM Center.
World Learning’s STEAM Center prepares students for those opportunities. By participating in hands-on activities—and discovering how science works in real-world applications—students gain the skills they need to earn scholarships and other opportunities at universities in Algeria and abroad, where they can further develop their STEAM knowledge.
“They start to become the darlings of the international exchange programs here,” Bitat says.
The STEAM program also builds confidence among students who may not have thought they could earn such opportunities.
“It’s really accessible to a lot of people,” she adds. “You don’t have to be this super-accomplished whiz kid, great at school and computing and formulas and all that. The practical approach really unlocks it for kids who didn’t think that they were the robotics type. We deeply believe that science can be unlocked for anybody.”
In fact, it has been so successful that World Learning recently opened a second STEAM center in Ouargla, a city in the southern Sahara. These two STEAM centers serve as hubs for seven “STEAM corners”—smaller STEAM initiatives run by former STEAM center volunteers throughout Algeria. In the future, World Learning hopes to establish even more STEAM centers and corners in that hub-and-spoke model.
“It really works beyond our expectations,” Bitat says.
Inspired by an international exchange program, eight career centers in Algeria are experimenting with new techniques to help young people find work.
Last fall, eight Algerian professionals visited career centers in the United States as part of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). Focused on career development and job creation for youth, the three-week trip was designed to give participants new insight for their work and share best practices. They came away inspired by the experience.
“The people who work on youth development and job creation [in the U.S.] are so passionate about what they do,” says Khaled Meddeb, a career counselor from El Oued. “That gave us the motivation to value the work that we do more and more.”
Now back in Algeria, all eight have returned to their regular roles in career centers in private vocational training schools supported by the Algeria Youth Employment Project (YEP), which is funded by the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and implemented by World Learning. Since YEP launched in 2015, nearly 6,000 first-time job-seekers have benefited from career services tailored to local job markets — including vocational training, soft skills courses, career counseling, and internship and job placement — via nine local career centers.
During the exchange trip, the Algerian participants visited public and private career centers, community colleges, vocational training institutes, and government-sponsored youth initiatives in Texas, Michigan, Vermont, and Washington, DC. At each site, they had the opportunity to observe the workings of American institutions similar to their own career centers and bring lessons back to Algeria with them.
“What I liked at all the career centers was that they orient and accompany youth from the youngest ages — from elementary school,” says Fatima Guenaou, a YEP career counselor from Oran. “They educate them in life principles, rules of good citizenship, and how to construct their social and professional identity.”
Since returning to Algeria, they have been busy putting to work all that they observed during their U.S. visit. In March, Meddeb’s career center in El Oued organized a career fair that drew on best practices he observed at a career fair in Austin, Texas. Exchange participants from career centers in Biskra, Blida, Oran, and Setif are holding career fairs this month as well.
Amel Henni Mansour, coordinator of the YEP career center in Blida, is one of them. “I was so inspired by the fair in Austin that I want to realize the same thing to give our youth — the chance to know and be in direct contact with employers in their fields and to ask them every question on their professional domain,” she says. Mansour added that she also started to
use bulletin boards for recruitment, training, and event announcements, and also encourage youth to volunteer as a means of gaining professional experience.
For both the State Department and World Learning, the trip presented a unique opportunity for internal collaboration: World Learning’s Global Development unit oversees the YEP career center project, which is funded by the State Department’s MEPI office. Those partners worked with World Learning’s Global Exchange unit — a selected implementer of the IVLP program through the State Department Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs — to organize the tour of U.S. career centers.
Today, thanks to that fruitful collaboration, the YEP-supported career centers are even better positioned to carry their work forward: In the months and years ahead, the IVLP exchange participants will continue build on the insights sparked by their time in the U.S. as they prepare Algeria’s job seekers for professional success.
On April 5, 2016, the U.S. Embassy in Algiers, The Boeing Company, DOW Chemical, Anadarko Petroleum and World Learning will gather with select guests to inaugurate the Algiers STEAM Resource and Training Center—the first of its kind in Algeria.
Standing for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics, STEAM education is an interdisciplinary approach to learning where rigorous academic concepts are coupled with hands-on innovation. Students work on real-world problems in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics in contexts that make connections between school, community and the global world of work. Around the world, STEAM programs are multiplying in number and impact as modern industry seeks young people able to contribute to innovation in these fields.
The Algiers STEAM center is an industry-led initiative to strengthen the innovation, critical thinking and communication skills of the Algerian workforce via direct training of youth, targeted training of teachers and community education forums and events. The Boeing Company, DOW Chemical, Anadarko Petroleum and the U.S. Embassy are supporting the STEAM Center, which will be based in the headquarters of World Learning in Algeria.
World Learning is a non-profit international organization working to promote leadership, empower people and strengthening institutions in over 75 countries through education, development and exchange programs. World Learning has been active in Algeria since 2005, implementing projects in partnership with the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
During the inauguration, attendees will have the opportunity to observe numerous student and teacher activities that will illustrate the positive impact the STEAM program will generate for young Algerians over the coming years.
When aerospace giant Boeing sought to cultivate a modern workforce in Algeria and Egypt, World Learning was ready to heed the call. Between Boeing’s background in STEM education—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics—and World Learning’s expertise in contextualizing curricula to meet local needs, the stage was set for a successful partnership.
Now, World Learning and Boeing are engaging hundreds of students of all ages in both countries, ensuring that the next generation workforce possesses the technical expertise and soft skills to succeed in today’s rapidly evolving job landscape.
CREATING AN INCLUSIVE NEXTGEN WORKFORCE IN EGYPT
In Egypt, Boeing and World Learning are teaming up to introduce the Boeing-supported “Curiosity Machine” curriculum to students nationwide.
The project-based platform is a perfect match for World Learning’s experiential learning philosophy: It presents students with real-world engineering design challenges, and encourages them to learn by discovering solutions in partnership with professional trainers and science teachers. This hands-on approach not only engages students—pushing them to learn both the how and the why of engineering—but it also links schoolwork more closely to professional work.
World Learning was well-positioned to introduce the Curiosity Machine in Egypt, having worked with the Ministry of Education for more than five years to open STEM-focused public secondary schools across the country. This past summer, World Learning launched the Curiosity Machine at 11 public STEM school summer camps in Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Daqahleya, Assiut, Kafr El Sheikh, Ismaleya, Luxor, Red Sea, Menoufeya, and Gharbeya.
Boeing and World Learning are also working together to connect some of Egypt’s most marginalized populations with job opportunities. With a Boeing grant, World Learning is building the capacity of a local grassroots nonprofit, Light and Hope, to increase opportunities for people with sight disabilities. This program includes direct training for visually impaired people and their caretakers, plus training for the Light and Hope’s staff and board members, who will sustain the work in the years to come.
CURIOSITY RISING IN ALGERIA
Boeing’s Curiosity Machine was a fit for World Learning’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) center in Algiers, Algeria. Structured around real-world problems, the STEAM Center helps students make connections between school, community, and the global world of work.
Since it launched in April 2016, the STEAM Center has trained more than 900 students (including 150 who regularly participate in activities), and has taught 25 teachers across Algeria to bring interactive STEAM teaching approaches to their own classrooms. In July 2017, it sent a team of young tech enthusiasts to the US to participate in the FIRST Global Robotics Challenge.
Boeing’s support and cutting-edge learning platform is at the heart of the center’s success. Yakdane Bakelli, Curiosity Machine Head Mentor, says the program quickly became one of the STEAM Center’s more popular offerings. “It adds a high value of creativity and engineering to students,” he says. “Even when we have a break, some students refuse to rest, preferring to work to find a solution. Generally, those students are the ones who were reserved at the beginning of the workshop.”
Bernard Dunn, president of Boeing Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey, says the company is proud to bring the Curiosity Machine to classrooms:
“By investing in high-quality, engaging education, Boeing is committed to empowering and inspiring a new generation to explore the fields of STEM and aerospace engineering.”
Reducing conflict is a top priority for Mohand Arezki Lahidiri, who dreams of building a school based on peace and tolerance in Algeria.
The English teacher from Tizi Ouzou took part in the Leaders for Democracy Fellowship(LDF), a program that brings emerging leaders from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions to the U.S., with the goal of teaching his own community about tolerance and religion, a salient issue in Algeria following years of violence and unrest.
The early nineties marked the start of a violent rift between the Algerian government and various rebel groups, following the Islamic Salvation Front party’s electoral win. It was the beginning of the almost decade long Algeria Civil War.
This violent past prompted Arezki to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a teacher, and to advocate against violence in school and in the community.
“My work focuses first on civic education,” he says. “We try to teach people and inspire them to participate in the community. The most important thing is to teach them to be tolerant, respectful and patient, and to be able to peacefully resolve problems.”
Mr. Arezki decided to participate in the LDF program, which is run by the non-profit World Learning and funded by the U.S. Department of State, after hearing about it from a colleague.
“I thought that the program was interesting because it focuses mainly on leadership, and it teaches methods such as how to implement a new project. It helps you to be part of society and to be a leader.”
He says the program gave him a clearer understanding of different cultures and ethnicities.
Algeria is home to a mix of ethnicities, including Berbers, Arabs, and many others, and Arezki believes that it is important to work with everyone.
“One thing that ties [together] all the people is our country Algeria. We share the past and we live together in Algeria,” he says.
The first part of his fellowship focused on academics; participants studied leadership, politics, communications, and advocacy at the University of Virginia.
“We learned about conflict based on identity, region, borders, and politics. I also learned how resolutions help mitigate and resolve conflicts.” Arezki says working with a U.S. organization offered great networking experience, and has enabled him to start planning his conflict resolution school in Algeria working with a professor he met at George Mason University.
“We agreed together to set up a very important project based on conflict identity, where she will teach people about identity and train teachers about religion-based conflict. [We will] teach how ethnicity leads to conflict, but also how ethnicity can mitigate conflict,” he adds.
The Algerian robotics team looked worried as they huddled around their boxy machine. It was the opening day of the First Global international robotics challenge — which brought youth from 160 countries to Washington, D.C. in July to compete and test their mechanical engineering skills — and the robot had gone offline with minutes to go before their first match.
“There’s nothing we can do,” said Sara Narimene Boukais, an 18-year-old student from Algiers. The robot had disconnected from the patchy Wifi in the D.A.R. Constitution Hall; the team would just have to wait for it to reconnect. Accepting that reality, the four team members picked up their robot and carried it into the cool, dark auditorium.
Frustrating, yes. But this ordeal was exactly the point of the inaugural First Global Challenge. Officially billed as an exercise to “ignite a passion” for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) among the world’s youth, the Olympic-style competition has an even loftier aim: to encourage the next generation to collaborate toward resolving critical global issues using their STEM skills. Dealing with stress, working together productively, solving problems — and even just realizing when to move on to a different problem — are just as much a part of the competition as scoring points. “Those are called learning opportunities,” explained volunteer and head judge Andy Marshall.
Participants and organizers alike believe this event is poised to spur global transformation. In Algeria alone, the competition’s emphasis on STEM skills could create new opportunities for a workforce facing serious challenges. But the hope is that positive local changes in Algeria and elsewhere will ripple out across the world, strengthening diplomacy and cooperation, and inspiring innovation with a moral bent.
Supporting communities with STEM education
Team Algeria works to get their robot online moments before their first match at the First Global international robotics challenge.
None of the members of Team Algeria had experience in robotics before preparation for this competition got underway. Some had dabbled in coding and computer science, but the principles of mechanical engineering and real-world applications of computer science were as opaque to them as the next person. Yet they had only months to build a robot that could move across a field, pick up small blue and orange plastic balls, sort them by color, and drop them into the correct bin.
“We didn’t know that [color sensors existed] six months ago,” said Cyrine Souffi, 17. Now, though, the team has the capacity to troubleshoot why the color sensor stopped working in their first match. They’ve learned these skills and more throughout their months of working together at the Algier’s STEAM Resource and Training Center, a community center run by the nonprofit World Learning where students can work on real-world problems using an interdisciplinary approach incorporating Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM).
STEAM skills have been increasingly seen as critical to international development, particularly in countries like Algeria, which has grappled with unemployment for years. According to Al Jazeera, one young person in three is unemployed in the North African country. To help alleviate the unemployment crisis, Algeria is turning to STEAM education. Last year, World Learning opened its STEAM center to prepare Algeria’s young people for careers in modern industry. The center offers workshops in everything from coding to leadership skills to more than 300 students — and it also assembled Algeria’s first-ever robotics team for the First Global Challenge.
“The STEAM center shows you what you’re really passionate about,” Souffi said. Though Souffi was originally attracted to the STEAM center to learn the real-life applications of coding — having previously participated in Code Academy and Tech Girls — she joined the robotics team on a whim. It was there that she learned she has a flair for robotics. Such was the case as well for Rafik Amrani, the 17-year-old team captain who also came to the STEAM center as a coder. “With robotics, I saw why we code,” he said.
These kinds of opportunities are new to Algeria, says Mohamed Ould Sad Saoud, education specialist for World Learning Algeria. He wants to make sure the next generation and those to come will continue to have opportunities to explore the various fields of science and technology, find their own passions, and broaden their perspectives on the world. “It makes me happy seeing these opportunities happening now,” he said. “I see it as my contribution to make the world a better place.”
Fostering global cooperation
While his team got into place for their second match, Nabil Dabouz stood with Team Lebanon — who were clad in rainbow afro spirit wigs — discussing strategy for working together. Just before the buzzer signaled to get started, they slapped hands in agreement and he rejoined his team.
Team Algeria works to get their robot online moments before their first match at the First Global international robotics challenge.
It was perhaps an unlikely development for the 18-year-old from Algiers, who says he struggled to communicate with his own team at the start of their robotics journey. With a background in computer science, Dabouz tended to fixate on perfecting small aspects of the robot’s design; he found it frustrating when the rest of his team wanted to move on to bigger problems. But those disagreements never became contentious and, over time, communicating became easier. Before departing for D.C., the team appointed him their chief strategist to work with other teams in the competition.
Collaboration is baked directly into the design of the First Global Challenge. Students must build robots to meet certain specifications and abilities, yes, but they also must learn to work together to win points. Upon arrival in D.C., teams are sorted into two major international alliances; each match pits three times from each alliance against one another, making strategic cooperation a valuable aspect of gameplay. One team’s strength could compensate for and complement the shortcomings of an alliance member.
Team Algeria’s robot competing on the floor at the First Global international robotics challenge.
That’s been important for Team Algeria. As the team learned upon arriving in Washington, their robot had a few shortcomings. With baccalaureate exams falling in the middle of the preparation period, they hadn’t had time to build a replica of the field that the Challenge would be using: a river with a bridge running over it and plastic balls representing clean and contaminated water throughout. It wasn’t until it was too late that Team Algeria discovered problems like the fact the bridge was too steep for their robot to climb. Another member their alliance would have to take on that task for them.
That was no problem. A strong Hall of Nations vibe pulses through the hallway that runs the perimeter of the Constitution Hall auditorium. Teams from Cyprus and Croatia take selfies together while it seems nearly every student spends free moments collecting signatures from around the world as souvenirs. Some teams hand out actual souvenirs, too, like the batik picture frame that a member of Team Indonesia brought to the Algerian team. “The event is about this,” Saoud says, gesturing around him. “Not that,” he adds, pointing to the auditorium doors.
His students agree. For most of them, this is their first time traveling abroad. Boukais had never traveled at all before and admits to having felt a little apprehensive about the trip before she left. She had assumed people who grew up elsewhere were too different from her and that they could never live together the way they were about to do. “But we actually can,” she said. “I didn’t know it was like this.”
Even Souffi, who visited the U.S. on a cultural exchange last summer, learned something new. “This experience has shown me how big the world is, how different our cultures are, and how exciting it is to discover this world,” Souffi said. “But I’ve also learned that we are all the same, even if we are from different countries and talk different languages. We’re still humans. We’re still standing up with each other. And we’re all here for one thing, which is robotics.”
Inspiring a better kind of technological revolution
Team Algeria.
On the last day of the competition, teams of teenagers flooded the floor of the auditorium clad in bright colors and waving their national flags in the air. They had gathered for the closing ceremony, eager to learn the winners of the First Global Challenge — which were not just for robotics skills, but also qualities like unity, courage, and a team’s personal journey. Despite winning their last match, Team Algeria wasn’t up for any awards. But they weren’t too disappointed. “We won the experience,” Amrani said.
Then World Bank President Jim Yong Kim took the stage to deliver the keynote address. “Watching the machines that you’ve built was so impressive to me,” he began. “But the estimates of our economists and scientists at the World Bank suggest that automation, technology, and artificial intelligence will eliminate half to two-thirds of all the existing jobs in developing countries.” The problem is grave, he said. But the solution might be in that very auditorium.
“You can be the generation that solves the most difficult problems in the world,” Kim said. “But you can only do it if you study science, technology, engineering, and math and then link that with the moral vision of giving everyone in the world the opportunity to live the kind of life that they want.” He encouraged them to use their STEM skills to create new jobs for the world’s poorest people and to address crises like climate change. “Water is going to be the issue that literally kills people because of climate change,” he said.“You guys can solve that problem.”
Just as cooperation was integral to the First Global Challenge, so was the incentive to address the coming water crisis. Each robot’s purpose was to decontaminate the river in the playing field and provide clean water to the villages on either side of the embankment. That focus taught Team Algeria how to use their STEM skills for the greater good even before Kim’s keynote address. “I saw how powerful robotics are,” Boukais said. “We can do a lot with robotics. We can improve others’ lives.”
This is just the beginning for robotics in Algeria. The team will give presentations on their experience to younger students involved in summer programs through the U.S. Embassy. Saoud says World Learning and the STEAM center are determined to reach people outside of the capital; he’s hoping they’ll be able to launch a national robotics competition so that next year’s team at the First Global Challenge in Mexico City will be composed of teenagers from all regions of the country.
It seems they’ll have the help of this year’s crop of students. “Our main goal is to help our community so as to make a better life,” Boukais said. Souffi agrees. She and a friend from home have already been discussing ways to reach out to youth across Algeria to teach them robotics. “I want to show the youth we can do a lot more,” Souffi said. “We have to think globally.”
Abderrahmane Harbi wants to bring innovation to Algeria.
The business consultant from Blida, Algeria, says the country’s 10-year civil war is largely responsible for the high rate of unemployment — which hovers over 10% — and economic stagnation.
The best way to move forward, he says, is by creating new and long lasting enterprises, which he says will help diversify Algeria’s economy.
“It’s very exciting to be able to create something and help people to create something …and see the result of what you’re doing instantly,” he says.
Harbi recently participated in the Leaders for Democracy Fellowship (LDF), a program providing emerging and mid-career civic leaders from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) an opportunity to develop leadership skills in the U.S. Funded by the U.S. Department of State and implemented by the non-profit World Learning, LDF also offers fellows the opportunity to meet other young leaders from the region, exchange ideas and share experiences. He says that after speaking with fellows about the influx of Syrian refugees from Jordan, he was inspired to help Malian refugees in Algeria.
Harbi says in comparison to other MENA countries, Algeria is lagging in enterprising business.
“When Algeria was a colony it was one of the greatest exporters for agricultural product,” he says. “Now in terms of innovation, Algeria is not a leader. There are so many countries that are advanced in technology and innovation that are so far ahead of us,” adds Harbi.
During the program, Harbi interned at the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), which seeks to strengthen democracies through private enterprise and market-oriented reforms.
“Even before I came to the U.S. I wanted to work for CIPE because I share the same values as them,” he says.
Now back in Algeria, Harbi is planning to work closely with a company that developed a bracelet used to track and locate kidnap victims.
“In Algeria people don’t know that they have the power to change things,” he says. “Not unless they try.”
Harbi recently participated in the 