Jerusalem Yibeltal Yizengaw is a PhD graduate from Addis Ababa University in the field of International and Comparative Education (CIE). Jerusalem gained a Master of Arts from the same university in the field of Curriculum and Instruction. She obtained Higher Diploma from Mekele University and received two Basic Degrees from Bahir Dar University. Previously, Jerusalem was a lecturer of pedagogical and psychological courses at different Colleges of Education in Ethiopia. Besides her academic career, she coordinated gender-based projects and served as head of colleges’ gender offices. Jersualem’s current position is working as an assistance professor of International & Comparative Education (ICE) in College of Education and Behavioral Sciences at Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia). Her research interests include youth employment and development; graduate labour market; entrepreneurship education; international assistance in education (educational aid); early child hood care and education; socio-economic problems in education; globalisation; academic achievement; and gender policies and sustainable development.
Besides her teaching work, Jerusalem has demonstrated contribution to the academic research, particularly in the field of engineering graduate skills shortages and mismatches. Research has been published in the IDS Bulletin, a widely distributed publication with a global audience, particularly in the Global South. Jerusalem’s research in this area contributes a lot to demonstrate the way in which the private sector creates more ‘spaces’ to absorb university graduates. Consecutively, a policy brief entitled with ‘reshaping Ethiopia’s higher education curriculum to tackle youth unemployment’ published through the sponsorship of the Mastercard Foundation influences the third Ethiopian Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP III). This briefing provides suggestions for the revision of the Ethiopian higher education curriculum and it also informs the government to re-shape the way how the country functions to create decent jobs for youth people.
In connection with comparative education, Jerusalem expanded her contribution to early childhood care and education. For this, an essay co-authored with Milatwork Tessega on ‘the implementation of early childhood care and education’ was published in one of the world’s most prestigious publications, Social Science and Humanities Open Journal (Elsevier). This study employs a descriptive survey methodology in a comparative viewpoint of private and public preschools, and it contributes new insights to education. Again, a tracer study funded by the World Bank contributes to the advancement of knowledge. Research focused on the linkages between higher education and labour market crosses the borders of the two disciplines i.e., education and economics. Methodologically, the research is a tracer study, tracing graduates from every corner of the nation. In her study, technology plays a critical role of collecting data from the scattered population. This also demonstrates the originality of her work. Recently, she has conducted an innovative research (jointly with Abaynesh Mereba) focusing on the impact of medium of instruction and its effects on the students’ academic achievement. This required robust quantitative analysis by using the data collected from Amhara and Oromia regional states. From the methodological point of view, this research advances knowledge and skills. Lastly, Jersualem’s focus has been on graduate youths in entrepreneurship activities (jointly worked with Addisie Nigussie) at it is forthcoming at a Taylor & Francis publication. This work is again in the main area of specialisation, which focuses on graduates and their skills to enhance employability and job creation, particularly in areas that can achieve sustainable futures.
In collaboration with colleagues, Jerusalem secured funds for different local projects. For example, she is involved in a project sponsored by ‘forum for higher education institutions in the state of Amhara’. As a team member of the project, she has mainly focused on the determinants of educational quality in public primary schools. For the success of this project, she collected immense data from different difficult places through which she believed to benefit students, teachers, parents and the society at large. She is also a co-investigator on the project ‘Complementing the steadily expanding access for education with the required quality in the state of Amhara’. The implementation of this educational initiative will have an impact on society’s lives. In the future decade, she plans to focus her research on quality education, early child hood care and education, gender equality, youth employment and sustainable development.
