Context-responsive Jobtech: Part 1

How Mercy Corps unlocks jobtech for skills in the toughest markets — Lebanon and Palestine

Technology can unlock skilling for jobs at scale by expanding reach, lowering costs, and enabling flexible, personalized learning pathways for young people. It may seem challenging to implement a jobtech solution in fragile environments, but Mercy Corps’ experience shows that it is possible to use jobtech for skills to enable powerful outcomes for typically marginalized users. Key to this is leveraging technology with human-centred design, which continuously adapts to the context of implementation. The following case studies demonstrate how successful Mercy Corps programmes have done just that.

What is jobtech for skills?

Jobtech for skills refers to the use of digital platforms and tools to support the skilling‑to‑employment journey. This can include online learning platforms, digital mentorship opportunities, testing and credentialing, and work‑based learning tools.

Case Study 1: FORSA (Lebanon) — Designing for Fragility and Gender Constraints

Lebanon’s post‑2019 context has been shaped by economic collapse, political instability, public service disruptions, and the COVID‑19 pandemic. Women — particularly in rural areas and refugee‑hosting communities — face compounded barriers to employment, related to care responsibilities, mobility restrictions, and weak market access.

In the Mercy Corps’ FORSA programme, the need for skilling arose from a disconnect between the skills held by graduates and those required by employers. This mismatch hindered effective talent-job matching, with many individuals overqualified for available positions, while still lacking the skillsets employers actually required. Youth in Lebanon were already accustomed to digital working — indeed, at the time (in 2019), Lebanon’s labour market had the largest share of freelancers in the world, at 2.4%. FORSA sought to seize the opportunity presented by the emerging online modality of work by delivering skills training digitally. Digital delivery also improved access to skills trainings in the post-Covid and crisis environment in Lebanon at the time.

In this context, FORSA partnered with existing jobtech platforms to develop their offering. FORSA supported the platforms to adopt a combination of digital and offline skills delivery, to provide a bridge to low-connectivity environments. The program also introduced work‑based learning (WBL) models, where trainees were placed within MSMEs for apprenticeship periods (typically three months), allowing participants to apply acquired technical and soft skills in practical business environments. Mercy Corps covered training fees for participants placed within MSMEs, and provided additional technical and in-kind support to the businesses to enhance their capacity to host trainees and benefit from the relationship. WBL participants demonstrated strong employment outcomes: among those who participated in WBL, 52% secured full-time jobs, the highest rate of full-time employment among all training modalities in the program. Additionally, 43% of WBL participants who reported being employed were retained by the same employer where they completed their apprenticeship. The practical, hands-on experience gained was repeatedly cited by participants as a critical factor in improving their employability and job readiness, with many expressing a desire for even longer or more extensive WBL opportunities.

Coaching was carried out digitally for women‑owned businesses to allow busy female entrepreneurs to improve their skills without having to invest in additional time and transportation.

As the crisis in Lebanon intensified over the programme implementation period, FORSA demonstrated strong adaptive management. When security concerns or travel restrictions made in-person participation difficult, partners adopted hybrid models — combining online sessions with reduced in-person training days — to improve accessibility while still maintaining engagement. This was especially important as participants faced challenges with travel distances and competing commitments. FORSA also strategically reduced their targets of certain skills training components, as they found that they could not accommodate a large number of participants online while still maintaining the quality of training.

Training topics were continuously adapted to emerging needs and trends. As traditional job markets contracted, the training focus shifted to skills that support entrepreneurship and online freelancing. The team frequently consulted with local stakeholders to select market driven training that offered the highest potential via employment opportunities. As such, trainings in web design, graphic design, and data management were selected to respond to the increased demand of the digital sector; agricultural trainings (such as agricultural contractors, agricultural best practices, nursery co-manager trainings) were implemented in response to the rising food insecurity; and photovoltaics (PV) trainings were conducted to supply the market with a specialised workforce in renewable energy, in response to the energy crisis.

Agricultural trainings in FORSA

FORSA targeted a total of 1,440 participants with skills training. By the end of the programme in 2023, around two-thirds (62.7%) of participants reported being employed (including full-time employment and freelance), with a total of 80% of participants reporting increased capacity to generate income as a result of the training programs. A remarkable proportion — 98% — of the skills training participants reported increased technical skills and knowledge after completing training.

In this context, programme adaptability — not technology alone — proved central to sustained impact.

Case Study 2: Gaza Sky Geeks (Palestine) — Jobtech Under Movement and Infrastructure Constraints

Since the Gaza blockade began in 2007, remote and online work has remained one of the few viable economic pathways for Palestinians in Gaza, particularly for youth who face unemployment rates of up to 70%. However, ongoing conflict, infrastructure damage, and movement restrictions severely constrain how jobtech can function.

Gaza Sky Geeks (GSG) built a skilling‑to‑jobs pipeline specifically designed for these realities. Thanks to technology, training content was aligned with global demand for tech skills rather than responding to saturated local markets. GSG partnered with private sector partners from international markets, such as Upwork and Fiverr, who were struggling to find skilled labour. Therefore, those partners had the incentives to readily deliver training and then absorb graduates into freelancing work for international clients. This model worked well for the trainees given border closures and restrictions to mobility. In order to respond to contextual realities, GSG also adopted:

1. Temporary and mobile co‑working spaces in Gaza for trainees allowing them to access solar power and shared internet;
2. Remote programme delivery from the West Bank, enabling Gaza‑based participants to join despite access constraints (it was found that 30% of individual participants in training delivered from the West Bank in 2024 joined remotely from Gaza); and
3. The incorporation of what they termed “experiential learning” — providing connections to remote placement companies for internships which gave participants both theoretical training and practical, on-the-job work experience. This subsequently led to hiring opportunities. Indeed, in 2022, approximately 5,000 participants underwent the training, internship and job placement programmes, and 70% of these graduates reported earning monthly incomes of $700 to $1,500 after 12 months. Even in 2025, still very much in the aftermath of the 2023 bombings, approximately 2000 participants graduated the GSG training and assistance programmes. 40% of these graduates have reported earning an average monthly income of US$900, bringing over $4 million in income into Palestine over the last 6 months.

Alasalam coworking space in Gaza

The Gaza Sky Geeks programme highlights how jobtech for skills can remain viable in extreme contexts when combined with infrastructure workarounds, and when attuned to markets where relevant labour market demand exists.

In the next part of this article, we examine how jobtech for skills was implemented in a politically stable environment in rural Indonesia, but programming had to account for nuances in the mindsets of youth and MSEs, and adapt to these realities in order to be successful.