The Arab World faces extraordinary challenges. In a region with the world's highest youth unemployment rate;; millions are frustrated by their job prospects – a frustration born of education that often leaves them unprepared for the marketplace. This report shows that the private sector can be a powerful force for positive change by complementing public efforts to ensure that the region's youth gain the right skills for the jobs being created.

The second phase of the Program Education Reform for the Knowledge Economy Program (ERfKE II) continues to build on the achievements of the first phase and follow the same implementation arrangements that have proven to be successful in (ERfKE I);; and in the same time;; focuses on schools as the locus of change as well as on the need to enhance capacity building at the central and field levels. The development objective of (ERfKE II) is to provide students enrolled in pre-tertiary education institutions in Jordan with increased levels of skills to participate in knowledge economy. Also the Mid-Term review highlighted the concrete progress achieved by (ERfKE II) in several key areas related to policy development;; quality of education interventions and school construction;; and identified the key issues as a summary of the overall progress that will be tackled and addressed during the remaining stage of implementation.