The starting point
By 2033, Iraq’s working-age population is projected to grow by some 7.4 million people. (Source: UN population data, cited in IMF Country Report, 2025) Those people do not need training in the abstract. They need training that connects to work that exists, or is about to.
Vocational education in Iraq faces a structural challenge in that respect: the link between what is taught and what workplaces require is thinly developed. Training is largely school-based and employers are seldom involved. The outcome is qualifications that lack practical currency.
Our approach
This is where German experience is most directly relevant. The dual system ties company and vocational school together structurally, and is discussed internationally as a reference model under the heading of TVET — technical and vocational education and training.
We are clear-eyed about its limits. The system rests on chambers, employer traditions and a legal framework that do not exist in Iraq in the same form, and it cannot be transplanted. Its principles can travel: involving employers, standardising qualifications, and training the trainers themselves.
We advance education and vocational training through practical continuing-education and qualification programmes, and through cooperation with educational institutions in Germany and Iraq.
How this differs from our capacity building work. Capacity building qualifies individual specialists. This focus area addresses provision and institutions — the structures from which qualification arises over time.
