Das arabische Bildungssystem benötigt eine Erneuerung, um die Lücke zwischen Bildungs-Output und Bedarfen der lokalen Arbeitsmärkte zu schließen, so Jamie McAuliffe, Präsident und CEO der Education for Employment (EFE), einem Netzwerk von Non-Profit Organisationen, die sich um wirtschaftliche Chancen für Jugendliche im Nahen Osten und Nordafrika kümmern.
The Arab education system needs an overhaul to bridge the gap between education outputs and the needs of local labour markets, Jamie McAuliffe, president and CEO of Education for Employment (EFE) has said. "The rates of unemployment among women is as high as eight times that among young men. In other circumstance, if women are earning a living and supporting the household of their families it can be a generational difference," said McAuliffe.'Arab education should be overhauled to combat unemployment'
Interviewed by The Jordan Times on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum 2013, which was held at the Dead Sea, McAuliffe said thousands are coming into the labour market with degrees every year and there are not enough jobs to absorb them.
"Now, with the influx of the Syrian refugees into the Kingdom, which further aggravates the problem, it is vital that the education system here goes through a full reform process from top to bottom," he said.
"All solutions proposed have to be infused into the education system in order to address the challenges facing plans to combat unemployment."
According to the Arab World Competitiveness Report 2013, Jordan ranks 64th in the Global Competitiveness Index of 2013 and the Kingdom's growth rates are not sufficient to create the employment necessary to absorb the country's approximately 60,000 new entrants into the labour market every year, he noted.
McAuliffe said EFE, an affiliated network of locally run nonprofit organisations that creates economic opportunities for youths in the Middle East and North Africa, aims to propose concrete practical solutions to the missing link between education and employment.
He said that EFE looks at the businesses to understand the skills they have and the kind of jobs available, then designs programmes young people who have academic education can take to enhance their skills.
McAuliffe said EFE tries to combat wasta and favouritism by providing those with academic qualifications access to opportunities and equipping them with skills needed by the market.
The CEO said Jordan is one the six countries that have been cooperating with EFE and so far, the network has succeeded in securing employment in the private sector for thousands of job seekers.
"We are trying to get governments and businesses to identify job-creating sectors and encourage investments to engage in them. That would be one way to solve part of the problem," he noted.
Another way, according to McAuliffe, is to encourage entrepreneurship and facilitate ways for young people to start small businesses with small loans that give them a first experience in finding a trade.
"I think Jordan, like many other countries in the region, has untapped talent. It gives me great optimism when I see the enthusiasm in the eyes of the young participants who take part in our courses and programmes," McAuliffe said.
McAuliffe and EFE are banking on the region's high percentage of youth as the main driver for development and an untapped talent pool.
"This region is blessed with the fact that the majority of its populations are between the ages of 15-35. You just need to direct them and give them access and skills to the right jobs," he said.
EFE also has a 50 per cent women's quota among the graduates it is helping.
He said getting young women into the work force and supporting opportunities for them to become entrepreneurs is one of the critical challenges and opportunities.
EFE's partner in Jordan, the Jordan Career Education Foundation (JCEF), is a local non-profit organisation concerned with the unemployed among the youth.
The JCEF has partnered with leading businesses, philanthropists and educational institutions to create a strong local organisation, according to its website.
Founded in 2006, the JCEF has trained over 1,987 youths in eight programme areas and placed over 69.1 per cent of the young Jordanians directly into jobs.