Barbara Walters chats with Forward Syria
Swaying between art and seduction
Discussing monetary policy with the man in charge
Where the earth screams in horror
07/14/2010 - Issue 41
The missing link
by Hamzeh Abu-Fakher
Kinan Bahnasi, the National Project Director of the Labor Market Database project for UNDP, and a lecturer at the University of Kalamoon, summarizes his experience in these two fields to explain employment issues faced by graduates of all Syrian universities.
How do you view the current labor market in relation to education?
There is a major mismatch between our education system and the labor market, in quantity and quality. A lot of graduates find their fields filled with competitors and no opportunities, and vice versa; while quality-wise, most graduates have to undergo special training after graduation to qualify to their applied positions.
Employment, or the lack of, is the main cause if immigration in Syria, especially now that 250,000 Syrians enter the job market each year. If we don’t tackle this problem Syria will see a bleak feature; we need to upgrade our education system to match our job market.
The way things are now, how do Syrians usually deal with this problem?
Students usually look for a job immediately after graduating, but finding they do not meet the requirements they go into training institutes. That takes a lot of time and basically means that they go to school twice to get into the work force.
The education system should understand that these skills should be provided in their curriculums; skills are tools for implementing knowledge.
What other key problems does the labor force face in Syria?
Many graduates here agree to any kind of job in any field, they have no clear understanding of what a career path is; continuity has no value here. In addition, they do not learn to take initiatives; they’d rather follow and adhere to strict guidelines than be creative and contribute.
And companies?
Most companies focus on previously employed candidates; instead they can provide internships for senior and junior college students, and have their pick after testing them in the field.
They also do not upgrade the skills of their staff or try to keep them up-to-date; they need to retrain their workers. There are new waves and trends in all business fields periodically and employees need to learn to keep up with the market.
Unfortunately, private companies do not know the significance of their employees; they don’t look at their employees as valuable assets.
