Last year, Kalimat al Mashari enrolled in a unique job-training program at AMIDEAST/Oman designed to enhance the work skills and self-confidence of Omani women like her — high school graduates from underserved backgrounds who are unemployed.

For Kalimat, the training was what she needed to take the challenging step of starting her own business. And this summer, she returned to AMIDEAST to take a follow-up course in entrepreneurship — a program that she credits with giving her “the courage and self-esteem I need to run my business successfully.”

Nearly 60 women have benefited from AMIDEAST’s partnership with the Embassy of the Netherlands to reach out to underserved women in Oman to empower them through a combination of basic job-skills training, career guidance, and — this summer — leadership and entrepreneurship components.

That the initiative is meeting a need was clear soon after the first program was announced in fall 2008. Some 180 women applied, requiring a careful selection process to fill the small number of available seats — a class of 30 women, who ranged in age from 19 to 36 and came from the regions of Al Dakhliya, Al Batinah, Al Dahira and Muscat. Moreover, class attendance was 100 percent throughout the 320 hours covering intensive English language and IT skills training, workplace etiquette, project work, field trips, cv-writing workshops, mock interviews, a career fair, and guest speakers and interaction with professionals in a variety of sectors.

The second program, launched in May 2009, attracted even more interest, with over 360 women applying, again for 30 places. Refining the program curriculum, AMIDEAST increased project-based work and the IT component, and divided the English language courses into General English and Workplace English.

This summer, 14 graduates of these programs came back to AMIDEAST for a follow-up course in entrepreneurship. Taught in Arabic over a three-week period, the "Entrepreneurial Awareness Program" (EAP) encouraged them to think seriously about their own entrepreneurial potential and helped them define their skill sets and interests and translate them into a marketable business. It also worked with them on ways to think creatively about pursuing business interests within the context of their other obligations and understand the essential components of a successful business.

The young women came away empowered to think in innovative ways about self-employment and equipped with basic business skills that would enable them to better understand the essential components of successful self-employment. The program also connected them to a network where they can receive practical support after the program’s end.

"This program helped me to know how to start a new business and especially how to deal with customers and solve their problems. Also we went through Sales and Accounting," said Maryam al Lawati, one of the participants in the program.

Riham al Mudaini, another participant, added, "The most important thing I learned in this program is how to be a hard worker and achieve my goal and start my own business."

In a recent survey of 30 of the alumnae of the two programs, AMIDEAST/Oman learned that 13 of the women are working for a wide variety of employers, including a cancer awareness organization, a law firm, travel agencies, a private school, and a five-star hotel. In addition, two have gained acceptance at local colleges.