Pal-Think opens «How to start your own business» with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom

Pal-Think for Strategic Studies opened a training programme titled “How to start your own business”, within the project “Strengthening entrepreneurship for Palestinian youth”, in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. The project aims to shed light on small enterprises, the reality of startups, and entrepreneurship, and strengthens human development through education, research, and the honing of entrepreneurial and leadership skills among graduates and students of the Palestinian universities.

The training was opened by the institution's projects manager, Sally al-Sammak, welcoming the audience and saying that Pal-Think is an independent Palestinian institution working in the field of societal reconciliation and research and strategic studies, deploying all its resources to develop young people's research, entrepreneurial, and leadership skills through varied scientific and practical trainings at the hands of the most competent trainers.

She explained that the training will extend over six training days, to hone the entrepreneurial and leadership skills of Palestinian university graduates from the different areas of the Gaza Strip.

The first day will be an introduction to entrepreneurship and small enterprises, the traits of the successful entrepreneur and the steps of shaping ideas, the skills of creative thinking, risk management, creating and developing a workspace, and team-building.

The second and third days will be on business models and their development, while market study, data-collection strategies, competitor analysis, and supply and demand will be the fourth day's axes.

During the fifth day the trainees will learn the budget within the business plan, the financial plan, fixed and variable costs, and funding sources. The final day's topic will be the skills of pitching entrepreneurial ideas and small enterprises.

Al-Sammak concluded: “The idea of this training came from the enormous gap between university education and the labour market's requirements. We ran this training recently and it succeeded in helping some trainees lay the ideas and foundations for their own enterprises. Pal-Think always and forever keeps young people before its eyes, to lift the economy of Palestinian society amid the ever-rising rates of unemployment and poverty.”

For his part, trainee Abdullah al-Baba, 23, a graduate in medical-equipment engineering, said he joined the training because “the economic situation is hard — I want to begin my life with an entrepreneurial project, and I want to turn my graduation project into an entrepreneurial one. My graduation project is a mobile dental unit to help people with special needs and the elderly who cannot climb to dental clinics on the upper floors.”

He added: “The training's axes are unique — there is almost no institution that provides trainings of this quality like Pal-Think.”

Trainee Raneen Farajallah, 22, a graduate in public relations and media, said she recently founded a startup with her colleagues but lacks certain skills in managing small enterprises.

She added: “I am here because I need to learn the skills of entrepreneurship and small-enterprise management and pass them to my colleagues. I am currently in an existing startup that aims to develop content for content creators — the moment I saw the announcement, I applied quickly to join the training because it will widen my thinking and help me develop the project.”

She continued: “What also encouraged me to join the training is that one of those who trained us in entrepreneurship before is a graduate of the entrepreneurship training programme Pal-Think held recently.”