Entrepreneurship and ICTs for the employment of young graduates!
By: Rachid Jankari
A shared responsibility.
Finding a job after obtaining a qualifying certificate or a college degree is primarily the graduates’ mission. However, universities and employers can contribute to making this responsibility less stressful for young graduates.
As a matter of fact, in addition to ensuring the transmission of knowledge and skills, university curricula also ought to develop the aptitudes of future graduates in order to win the challenge of integrating the job market.
Therefore, it is of outmost importance to introduce modules that are dedicated to job search methods at the early stages of the students’ education. More interestingly, students must gradually explore the paths leading to the alternative of entrepreneurship and business creation.
It is time to break up with the culture of civil service and the easy and guaranteed employment in governmental administrations and bodies. This “cultural” rupture should take place unrelentingly by encouraging the culture of entrepreneurship, starting from the undergraduate level.
Specific modules related to the process of starting a business, and the procedures of cash management and human resources management should definitely be integrated in university curricula.
On another level, several international experiences focused on establishing incubators for junior companies. This approach is about creating reception areas inside universities to support students that have ideas of innovative companies. These spaces offer student entrepreneurs free support in terms of training, consultancy, and financing for periods up to 24 months.
However, job market integration does not only depend on the involvement of actors belonging to the university educational system or to the government. Students can also take advantage of the opportunities offered by information technologies in their search for jobs and internships.
An example of these opportunities is the professional social networks such as www.linkedin.com and www.viadeo.com. These “social networking” websites have become increasingly effective in approaching business owners and managers, in order to send them unsolicited applications, and to monitor job and internship listings more closely.
To take full advantage of these reliable private networks, young graduates should make sure to put their academic background and potential skills under the spotlight.
It is also recommended to list the CVs of young graduates online on recruitment websites. In Morocco, job hunters should keep an eye on the ads published on www.rekrute.com.
Finally, a dual approach that consists of active research both on the internet and in real life is the only guarantee to preserve the optimism of getting an internship or a job. This optimism should convert the discomfort of the unemployment fear into a concrete action to get a job.
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Your Comments
commentsAnonymous About over 2 years ago
Recruitment websites like rekrute.com or amalJob.com are not enough for a successful job search. The procedure of tracking applications is not clear on these sites, and information about it for candidates is almost inexistent. I think that it is important to inform candidates about the status of their applications and the methods used for primary selections. Moreover, chances of getting a job for young graduates on these websites are very small since all ads (with no exceptions) require prior experience in the field or the responsibilities of the job in question. Therefore, it is important to develop a strategy to help young graduates find junior positions. The second point is about rejection. Employers do not contact candidates who could not get through the first stage of getting an interview. It is important for applicants to receive an email informing them that they do not qualify for an interview, with a brief explanation. This reduces the stress of the candidates and allows them to address their shortcomings, and maybe change their job search strategy as soon as possible. Finally, I think that a list of direct contact information of HR managers could be another way to facilitate the job search for young graduates.
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