Bilal (second from left) is 22 years old and grew up in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, in a city called Rafah. Recently he has opened his own welding workshop. Thanks to this small enterprise, he earns a basic salary of around 700NIS a month (around 160 EUR), but over time he would like to increase the size of his workshop.

However, for the moment he does not have enough skills to do so. Therefore, he is now enrolled in the Work Based Learning (WBL) initiative of the Vocational Training Centre of Rafah. Together with 15 other students he follows a six-month long training course in aluminium welding. What is special about this course, is that he is mainly stationed not inside the training centre, but in a big aluminium welding company, where he works for 3 days a week. The other 2 days the students go to the VTC to learn more basic or theoretical skills which they can afterwards apply in the company the rest of the week.

"What is special about this course, is that I am able to work in a big aluminium welding company for 3 days a week."

He has chosen this training course especially because of the cooperation with the private sector. The experience of working in a bigger company is extremely useful for him. This collaboration between the private and the public sector allows him to enhance his welding skills more than in a standard training course and will make a better entrepreneur out of him.