Damascus, SANA – In the framework of activating the National Labor Market Observatory and finding job opportunities for unemployed and new graduates, Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor is preparing to launch the Career Guidance and Entrepreneurship Center in Barzeh area in Damascus by the end of this year.
In a statement to SANA, Head of the Observatory Mahmoud al-Kawa said the Center is an opportunity for job seekers from all ages and scientific and professional levels to be able to know the professions and jobs that are suitable for them and provide them with information on trends in supply and demand in the labor market.
It will help building the capacity of those wishing to enter the labor market and guide them according to the professional path that suits their qualifications, al-Kawa added.
He pointed out that the Observatory was established in cooperation between the Ministry and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2010 and was suspended during the crisis period before it was reactivated last year by national cadres.
He mentioned that the Ministry recently signed memorandums of understanding with the owners of industrial enterprises, banks and insurance companies and the designed two programs in cooperation with Baraka Bank and the Syrian Islamic International Bank dedicated to new graduates from the Faculty of Economics and Commercial Institutes that will be launched at the Career Guidance and Entrepreneurship Center.
Al-Kawa said the entrepreneurship aspect focuses on the localization of several programs to make the Center an incubator for entrepreneurs so that the employer moves from micro-project to a larger project that becomes a generator of job opportunities, adding that the Center will provide job leaders with capacity-building services, in addition to securing financing for outstanding projects through partnerships established by the Ministry with a number of parties.
The services of the Center, he added, will include capacity building to enhance access to employment in Damascus and its Countryside as a preliminary plan, adding that about 80 persons will benefit from the Center in its first stage from the graduates of Faculty of Economics and Commercial Institutes.
After evaluating the experiment, it can be expanded to include other provinces, al-Kawa said, stressing that all programs and activities of the Observatory target the families of martyrs and wounded army personnel as its priority.
He added that the Ministry, in cooperation with the ministries of Defense and Interior and the Small and Micro Enterprises Development Commission, are working on preparing an entrepreneurial program for those whose compulsory military service was terminated due to a particular injury in order to enable them build their own business.
M.al-Frieh/H. Said