Talent Acceleration Program to Scale (TAP-2-Scale)


With this single-phase intervention, Switzerland aims to foster economic perspectives for Palestinian youth. The intervention will focus on creating long-term job placements of Palestinian graduates in international IT companies (including Switzerland), and it shall be achieved through upskilling programs tailored to private sector needs. The intervention is implemented in partnership with the Palestinian-Dutch start-up company TAP under the modality of payment for results.

Country/region Topic Period Budget
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Employment & economic development
Employment creation
Business support & economic inclusion
15.03.2024 - 31.08.2026
CHF  706’000
Background

Despite raising levels of education, four out of ten Palestinian youth have no jobs. Creating jobs for young men and women in the oPt is hence an imperative not only for economic progress, but also for the stability of the region. The changes that occurred after the war in Gaza resulted in a spike in unemployment, especially among youth, some of whom used to work inside Israel, thus exacerbating an already dire situation.

New job opportunities for qualified youth arise from the global digital transformation, which is gaining space also in the oPt – a trend validated by the iGravity report commissioned in 2020 by the Swiss Cooperation Office for Gaza & the West Bank (SCO).

Switzerland has been very active in the areas of job creation for Palestinians, digitalization of the Palestinian economy, and technology transfer of Swiss knowhow and expertise to Palestinian businesses and universities.

This new initiative builds on a pilot project that Switzerland funded through the startup company Kiitos, where young women and men were trained on cutting-edge technologies, and then supported to land long-term remote employment contracts with Swiss and European businesses. Based on that success, Kiitos saw a business case in this business model, and decided to spin-off TAP as a standalone startup to focus solely on the upskilling and employment creation business.

Objectives Advance socioeconomic development in the oPt by bolstering employment prospects for youth within the technology sector.
Target groups
  • Palestinian university students and graduates, especially women
  • Non university graduates, with strong technology experience, and high drive to upgrade their technology skills
Medium-term outcomes

Outcome 1: Sustainable job placements of Palestinian women and men in international IT markets are achieved through tailor-made, market-driven upskilling programs.

Outcome 2: The private sector partner (TAP) is on a path to achieve financial self-sufficiency by year 2026 through increasing internal revenues and by benefiting from economies of scale through targeting more beneficiaries.

Results

Expected results:  

  • 200 students trained on high-end, market-sought technical and interpersonal skills
  • 154 graduates (77%) placed in high quality jobs


Results from previous phases:   This single phase proposal builds on the successful pilot financed through a small action and implemented by Kiitos (TAP antecedent), through which 41 youth were trained, 19 have secured full time employments with international private sector companies such as DeepOpinion (Austrian), Scigeniq (Dubai) as well as big Swiss companies and startups like Covalo, Wingtra.


Directorate/federal office responsible SDC
Project partners Contract partner
Private sector
  • Foreign private sector South/East
  • Talent Acceleration Platform (TAP) (a spin-off from the startup business Kiitos); Kiitos is a private sector startup business who worked on IT job outsourcing and IT job training and remote job placements. Kiitos was the implementer of a previous Swiss-funded project. In 2022 Kiitos decided to spin off the job training and placement functions and create a new business entity called Talent Acceleration Platform “TAP”.


Coordination with other projects and actors

The program will coordinate closely with:

  • The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a co-donor for the program
  • The World Bank, Swiss Funded – Youth TechStart project as it’s working in the area of job creation, and targeting the same beneficiary group
  • UNDP-Implemented, Swiss-Funded University-led Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program. The UNDP project aims to support university graduates developing market-ready technologies, and thus, TAP will coordinate to either develop the skills of these university graduates, or link them to potential employers
  • The Swiss Business Hub Middle East in Dubai. The intervention will coordinate with the HUB to help facilitate access to MENA hiring companies and possibly investors
Budget Current phase Swiss budget CHF    706’000 Swiss disbursement to date CHF    414’457 Total project since first phase Budget inclusive project partner CHF   706’000
Project phases Phase 1 15.03.2024 - 31.08.2026   (Current phase)