As part of the SHERO Conference, which was organized by the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship at Princess Sumaya University for Technology as part of the activities of the 13th Global Entrepreneurship Week, and patronized by HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, a dialogue session was held about the career path with leading Jordanian women influencers and decision-makers. The President of the University, Professor Mashhoor Al-Refai, attended the discussion, which saw the participation of the Minister of Culture, Haifa Al-Najjar, the CEO of the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation, Valentina Kassisieh, the CEO of the INJAZ Foundation, Deema Al-Bibi, and the co-founder of the Amam Ventures Investment Fund, Tamara Abdel Jaber. The panel discussion was moderated by Eng. Shatha Al-Sharif.

At the beginning of the symposium, the leaders reviewed their success stories and their own experiences from their beginnings until they reached positions of influence and took a role in decision-making, indicating that Jordanian women still have limited access to leadership positions in both the public and private sectors. They highlighted the role of the family in planting the seed of leadership and excellence in its children and sustaining the concept by providing them with care and a supportive environment. They also mentioned that failure and trying to experiment is the path to success and continuity, and called for bridging the gap between knowledge and action.

Al-Najjar spoke about the role of education, re-learning, and family background in honing the talents and skills of young men and women, which subsequently affects their educational and professional paths and orientations.

Al-Najjar emphasized that the values ​​of citizenship, a sense of belonging to the homeland, acceptance of others, openness to all cultures, freedom and justice all form the foundations for success.  She also spoke about the importance of continuing to modify school curricula to suit the reality and future of our young people, and the importance of integrating culture into education to transform our schools into halls of learning and spaces for creativity.

Al-Bibi emphasized that leadership is a practice, not a position, and that it can be found in various jobs and in all fields. She emphasized the need to reduce the gap between the knowledge and skills that students acquire through education and what the labor market needs in terms of skills, knowledge and practices, some of which are constantly changing and developing. She also pointed out that the difficulties and pitfalls that a person encounters along the way constitute important learning opportunities and a source of motivation to achieve the desired goals.

Kassisieh pointed to the culture of extracurricular activities and its great role in refining the individual’s personality. She pointed out that, through her personal experience, she sees that a person’s career path may be the result of volunteer work, regardless of academic educational attainment. She pointed out that leadership lies in the search for opportunities to reach appropriate solutions in different ways and called for giving young people opportunities to move in this direction.

Abdel-Jaber stressed the need for networking between institutions and companies and to provide support and guidance to provide a pioneering environment that serves the community. She highlighted the need to build positive habits in individuals from a young age, such as perseverance and ambition, and work to motivate them. She also talked about the necessity of networking with oneself, just as with others, noting that raising the rate of economic participation of Jordanian women is a national duty for both Jordanian women and everyone who is in a decision-making position.