ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Fifty companies and more than 2,000 people turned out at the Erbil Job Fair 2013 this week, the largest event of its type in the Kurdistan Region, where a booming economy means that jobs and job seekers are both plentiful.
Companies from a range of sectors were present at Monday’s job fair, among them construction, security, engineering, oil and gas, media, communications and development.
“The variety of companies was intentional, we didn’t want to just focus on one sector,” said Talan Aouny, founder and CEO of Erbil Manpower Company, a recruiting and business services agency for Iraq that is partially sponsored by Foras, an economic growth program of the US government.
“We hope this will become an annual event, and if we get enough support, we would like to hold similar job fairs all over Kurdistan,” Aouny said.
Don Henry, Senior Project Director of Foras, said the real work of their organization is to make the local employment marketplace more open.
“There are a huge number of youth here who are invisible and we want to make them and their skills visible,” Henry explained, adding that Foras also aims to make the detailed requirements of companies more visible to job seekers.
“Forasjobs.com is a virtual marketplace for job seekers and organizations to meet, look at each other’s skills and find jobs,” Henry noted.
Babylon Media, a local multimedia company, was at the fair to fill several vacant positions in accounting, human resources, public relations, sales, marketing and sound engineering.
“We need sound engineers, but they’re very hard to find in Erbil,” said Kinan Mallouhi of Babylon.
Delan Akrawi of the Salahaddin Career Center said five or six workshops are held every month to provide students with soft skills training.
“Over 400 students were trained before the job fair,” Akrawi added.
While the Salahaddin Career Center primarily connects employers with graduates of Salahaddin University, the center also assists other job seekers.
“We’re in contact with private sector companies and they keep us informed of their vacancies, which we fill with graduates – we’re a link,” Akrawi explained.
Juan Kasem recently left his job and was at the job fair to search for a better position.
“I’m looking for a new, good opportunity, and also to network,” Kasem commented, adding that there were not as many IT companies at the fair as he would have liked.
Merna Zaia, a recent electrical engineering graduate, was at the fair in the hopes of finding employment.
“I’m searching for a job in my field, and there are many jobs out there, but the problem is that most companies who hire electrical engineers want to hire a boy, not a girl,” Zaia explained.
Turnout for the event was expected to be in the hundreds, largely university students from both Erbil and Sulaymani, but as the day drew to a close attendance surpassed 2,000 participants.
“We weren’t expecting numbers this high and are very pleased with how many people came out today,” Aouny said.
Comments
9 0 FAUthman | yesterday at 05:56
This is so touching. Look at this wonderful photograph. The youth anxious to build their own lives and thus indirectly their own country. That is how the economic tide in Kurdistan, thanks to its leadership, "lifts all boats". If the Kurds succeed in diversifying their economy in the next few years, they would have really achieved being be on their way towards the unbelievable "Miracle of Kurdistan".
Report
2 1 stan | 27/11/2013
If only there government can follow suite and get there act together
