Region’s higher education not preparing enough graduates . . .
Higher education institutions are helping in that the MENA Region’s market lacks suitable graduates. In the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council are not producing enough graduates to meet the needs of the region’s labour market, according to educators and experts, reports Arab News (quoting from University World News, issue 411).
This was the conclusion drawn by the participants at a workshop entitled “The Suitability of Education Outcomes to the Needs of the Labour Market”, organised by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education on the sidelines of the 18th meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council Ministers of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, recently.
The participants discussed various measures to help meet this demand in the Gulf Cooperation Council, which included increasing the capacity of academic and training institutions. There was also a discussion on the size of the labour market and changing economic and other developments in the region and globally.
Read full report on Arab News .
TradeArabia of February 1st, 2016 meanwhile had produced this article below :
80% of fresh MENA graduates ‘unprepared for jobs’
Eighty 80 per cent of fresh graduates in the MENA are leaving university unprepared for the workforce claiming college did not help them identify suitable job opportunities, a report said. Just under one-third (29 per cent) of young people surveyed were unemployed graduates, added the study conducted in collaboration with Injaz Al-Arab, Bayt.com, a leading job site in the region and and YouGov – a global market research leader – as a part of the Injaz Al-Arab ‘Expand Your Horizon’ initiative which attempts to combat the high levels of youth unemployment in the MENA region. This figure was even more accentuated among young women (43 per cent of those surveyed were unemployed graduates) and fresh graduates (59 per cent of 18-24 year olds were unemployed). Surveying employed and unemployed graduates and current students across 19 MENA countries, the research revealed that certain sectors in the region are also often overlooked by Arab youth. Indeed, most respondents claimed to be unsure about the availability of jobs particularly in hospitality, aviation and media. Overall, two-thirds of respondents claimed to have insufficient knowledge to consider a career in the hospitality, aviation and media sectors and less than half believed they provided good opportunities for career enhancement. The results suggest youth across the region is not aware of the breadth of opportunities available to them in those sectors, with just 12 per cent expecting job growth within aviation, 24 per cent expecting growth within media and 25 per cent expecting growth within hospitality. Needless to say those sectors were also particularly unpopular in which to forge a career, with just 3 per cent of fresh graduates citing their willingness to work in each sector respectively.
Read more at http://www.tradearabia.com/news/EDU_299924
