By Raber Y. Aziz:

Alison, an Ireland-based online learning provider, has launched the first ever online courses in the Kurdish language to provide free online education for Kurdish speaking individuals. The courses are live now.

The project is a joint effort between USAID/Foras, an economic development project in Iraq, Silatech, a regional social initiative promoting employment opportunities for Arab youth, and Alison, a world leader in Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC). The translation was funded by the USAID/Foras, and accomplished by Cihan University’s translation center in Erbil, which is a private university.

There are four courses available in Kurdish language, offering diplomas in Human Resources, Customer Service, Tourism, and Food Safety. These are certified courses that allow the registered learners to receive a .PDF certificate on successful completion of each course.

The courses were chosen based on the local market demand and are aimed at helping Kurdish-speaking individuals to develop their skills and knowledge base. The diploma courses can be added to job seekers’ CVs as an accomplishment.

As the USAID/Foras Senior Translator Officer/Kurdish, I had the responsibility of supervising the translation process and I have to say this was an exciting project. It feels really good to be working on a project that’s going to touch the lives of so many Kurds who do not have access to such learning because they do not speak English or Arabic.

If you are interested in taking the courses just log on to www.alison.com and long in with your existing Google, Yahoo, or Facebook account. Then go to Diploma Courses and scroll down to find the four Kurdish courses.

Here are links to all four courses:

http://ku.alison.com/courses/Diploma-in-Customer-Service-Kurdish

http://ku.alison.com/courses/Diploma-in-Food-Safety-Kurdish-Version

http:// ku.alison.com/courses/Diploma-in-Human-Resources-Kurdish

http:// ku.alison.com/courses/Diploma-in-Tourism-Studies-Kurdish

Raber Y. Aziz is a Kurdish blogger, translator, writer-editor, university instructor, and an ex-journalist, from Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital Erbil. His journalistic works have appeared on various print and online media outlets, among them Kurdistan Tribune, AKnews, Hawlati Newspaper, Aso Newspaper, Kurd Net, and others. With an MA in English Studies and Communication from Valparaiso University, USA, he is currently a university instructor at Salahaddin University’s Language Center. He can be reached at raber.aziz@gmail.com, followed on twitter @RaberYAziz or visit and follow him on his blogs www.kurdishbookshelf.blogspot.com and http://kurdishobserver.blogspot.com/