Region’s employment agencies set out future vision
Employment agency representatives from across the region gather in Amman to exchange good practice and set action plan to enhance their future services.
7 November 2013
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العربية
Amman (ILO News) – A training seminar hosted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) that aimed to tackle obstacles facing the region’s employment agencies concluded in Amman on Thursday (November 7).
The five-day event brought together representatives from both public and private employment agencies operating across Lebanon, Jordan, the occupied Palestinian territory, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt. A wide variety of issues facing the region were discussed, most notably challenges of inclusive recruitment, difficulties of recruiting in informal economies, the need to meet employers’ interest in employment services and online and mobile phone job matching.
Patrick Daru, the ILO’s Senior Skills and Employability Specialist, said the seminar highlighted some of the real progress made by these countries so far, as well as areas that still need attention. ”We know that a lot of recruitments in the region are not based on competencies but are based on discriminatory practices such as women or people with disabilities being excluded from certain jobs or because of the so-called wasta system - employment obtained through social or political connections,” he explained.
An example of employment services promoting improved access of groups with restricted work options into the labour market is in Lebanon, where the ILO has partnered with UNRWA to support five Employment Service Centres for Palestine refugees. Generating jobs for Palestinians and developing their skills has contributed towards poverty reduction and the social inclusion of refugees in Lebanon.
‘’We succeeded in mainstreaming the challenge of Palestinian employment at the level of the decision makers where they had to rethink the past and be more open to new solutions. Practically, now the Palestinians have a focal point to go to but very importantly this was the first time this was discussed on a government level,’’ said Employment and Labour Market Specialist Gregor Schulz.
Mismatching of skills is rife in many Arab countries and information about job opportunities is inconsistent. This leaves unnecessary gaps in certain job sectors. Private recruitment agencies in the region have supported the spread of self-services through online and mobile phone services, which aim to provide the right information to job seekers and employers in order to facilitate better matching.
Lana Hijazi, co-founder of souktel.org, mobile phone based service that connects job-seekers with employers in the Middle East using SMS service, said that their service has made job matching more efficient compared to using traditional methods. ‘’Most young people have mobile phones and like to text, so our service attracts many young job seekers who are comfortable using the technology, especially since it is free. It is easy to use and once the job seekers and employers register with us, they get information from us delivered to their phones. This compared to traditional methods works more efficiently because we filter the information and try to match employers and job seekers accurately all through SMS exchanges.’’
Another challenge facing employment agencies in the Arab world is the size of their informal economies. “Most people employed in the informal sector are the so-called ‘youth at risk’, who in many cases are exploited by their employers, being paid less than the minimum wage and their working conditions are less than decent. But unfortunately, the informal sector entities outnumber the formal big businesses,’’ explained Lara Abu Salim, career development specialist at the International Youth Foundation in Jordan.
Her organization provides technical training that is tailored to the needs of the labour market. ‘‘’The training provided gives people an opportunity to work in a variety of areas, that are marked with more formality, such as decent work conditions. But what is also needed is better coordination between the training and education providers with the ministries of labour and education in order create a more balanced labour market.’’
Ali Muhana, the chief of planning and SME projects development at the Federation of Palestinian Chambers, said there is a need to take a closer look at small and micro businesses in informal economies in order to find solutions for unemployment. ‘’This would be done through formalizing these businesses and through informal apprenticeship systems’’ he said.
Employment agencies in the region are often seen as services for job seekers. But Jean Selim Abi Fadel, general manager of the National Employment Office in Lebanon emphasized the importance of structuring services to employers in his office. ‘’Employers are a very important target for us because if they are not interested in our services then we will not have a business, so we need to meet their needs.‘’
****The ILO provides support and guidance to its member states to strengthen their public employment services, promote the regulation of the activities of private employment agencies and encourage productive cooperation between the two.
The workshop was carried out in collaboration with the ILO Regional Office for Arab States, the ILO's International Training Centre in Turin and included ILO senior employment services specialists from Geneva.
****
For more information, please contact: Nisreen Bathish Abou Ragheb, Jordan Communications Officer, International Labour Organization, Email: [email protected], Mobile: +962 79 90 480 12
The five-day event brought together representatives from both public and private employment agencies operating across Lebanon, Jordan, the occupied Palestinian territory, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt. A wide variety of issues facing the region were discussed, most notably challenges of inclusive recruitment, difficulties of recruiting in informal economies, the need to meet employers’ interest in employment services and online and mobile phone job matching.
Patrick Daru, the ILO’s Senior Skills and Employability Specialist, said the seminar highlighted some of the real progress made by these countries so far, as well as areas that still need attention. ”We know that a lot of recruitments in the region are not based on competencies but are based on discriminatory practices such as women or people with disabilities being excluded from certain jobs or because of the so-called wasta system - employment obtained through social or political connections,” he explained.
An example of employment services promoting improved access of groups with restricted work options into the labour market is in Lebanon, where the ILO has partnered with UNRWA to support five Employment Service Centres for Palestine refugees. Generating jobs for Palestinians and developing their skills has contributed towards poverty reduction and the social inclusion of refugees in Lebanon.
‘’We succeeded in mainstreaming the challenge of Palestinian employment at the level of the decision makers where they had to rethink the past and be more open to new solutions. Practically, now the Palestinians have a focal point to go to but very importantly this was the first time this was discussed on a government level,’’ said Employment and Labour Market Specialist Gregor Schulz.
Mismatching of skills is rife in many Arab countries and information about job opportunities is inconsistent. This leaves unnecessary gaps in certain job sectors. Private recruitment agencies in the region have supported the spread of self-services through online and mobile phone services, which aim to provide the right information to job seekers and employers in order to facilitate better matching.
Lana Hijazi, co-founder of souktel.org, mobile phone based service that connects job-seekers with employers in the Middle East using SMS service, said that their service has made job matching more efficient compared to using traditional methods. ‘’Most young people have mobile phones and like to text, so our service attracts many young job seekers who are comfortable using the technology, especially since it is free. It is easy to use and once the job seekers and employers register with us, they get information from us delivered to their phones. This compared to traditional methods works more efficiently because we filter the information and try to match employers and job seekers accurately all through SMS exchanges.’’
Another challenge facing employment agencies in the Arab world is the size of their informal economies. “Most people employed in the informal sector are the so-called ‘youth at risk’, who in many cases are exploited by their employers, being paid less than the minimum wage and their working conditions are less than decent. But unfortunately, the informal sector entities outnumber the formal big businesses,’’ explained Lara Abu Salim, career development specialist at the International Youth Foundation in Jordan.
Her organization provides technical training that is tailored to the needs of the labour market. ‘‘’The training provided gives people an opportunity to work in a variety of areas, that are marked with more formality, such as decent work conditions. But what is also needed is better coordination between the training and education providers with the ministries of labour and education in order create a more balanced labour market.’’
Ali Muhana, the chief of planning and SME projects development at the Federation of Palestinian Chambers, said there is a need to take a closer look at small and micro businesses in informal economies in order to find solutions for unemployment. ‘’This would be done through formalizing these businesses and through informal apprenticeship systems’’ he said.
Employment agencies in the region are often seen as services for job seekers. But Jean Selim Abi Fadel, general manager of the National Employment Office in Lebanon emphasized the importance of structuring services to employers in his office. ‘’Employers are a very important target for us because if they are not interested in our services then we will not have a business, so we need to meet their needs.‘’
****The ILO provides support and guidance to its member states to strengthen their public employment services, promote the regulation of the activities of private employment agencies and encourage productive cooperation between the two.
The workshop was carried out in collaboration with the ILO Regional Office for Arab States, the ILO's International Training Centre in Turin and included ILO senior employment services specialists from Geneva.
****
For more information, please contact: Nisreen Bathish Abou Ragheb, Jordan Communications Officer, International Labour Organization, Email: [email protected], Mobile: +962 79 90 480 12