Transition to employment of apprenticeship after graduation Obstacles in Syria Eng.Anton Aljouni HRM/D Freelance consultant Yomna Dallal Bashi Apprenticeship Data Base Manager

INAP Conference Italy- Turin 17-18 September 20079

Syria

Population 22,331,000

Aleppo

Area Economic Environment Ongoing transfer process to Socio-Market Economy

Agenda

 Introduction  1) Employment Process in Syria  2) Analysis of apprentices employment process  3) Restriction and obstacles for suitable employment  4) Results and Proposals

Introduction

The apprentices employment in Syria after 9 years is that the rate of employed apprentices from total graduates is very low This paper tries to analyze the obstacles of apprentices in the transition to employment.

A set of indicators will be discussed which help to specify the obstacles of apprenticeship employment process

1) Employment Process in Syria



Informal “ Traditional Apprenticeship ”

Typical type of traditional apprenticeship in MEDA region Mainly in Informal Industrial sector and other economic sectors (Construction, Tourism, Agriculture,..) No statistics about this type of learning

1) Employment Process in Syria

Government employment offices Queue Job Fairs Private employment offices Random employment

1) Employment Process in Syria

Government employment offices Queue ADVANTAGES

Confidential, Free service, Public sector employment, Career guidance service, Social aspects, Huge database.

DISADVANTAGES

Poor relations with private sector, Central decisions Bureaucracy

1) Employment Process in Syria

Job Fairs ADVANTAGES

direct relation between employer and job seeker, organised process, short time.

DISADVANTAGES

limited to 2 governorates only, in some cases high cost

1) Employment Process in Syria

Private employment offices ADVANTAGES

Flexibility, try to have a good responsiveness to private sector.

DISADVANTAGES

Not well organised, non legislative, charged service, hasn’t career guidance service, hasn’t social aspect.

2) Analysis of apprentices employment process

Training contract Not employment contact Moral obligation Official training during study

• School board • Allowance to students • Training log book

Summer training

• It is optional • School board not involved • Temporary employee according to low • Building the trust

Transfer to employee Obtain VET certificate Skilled worker

2) Analysis of apprentices employment process

Damascus The table shows the law percentag e of employed graduates which is 24%.

2) Analysis of apprentices employment process

Aleppo Some students are employed and are studying in university or intermediat e institute at the same time so they counted twice

2) Analysis of apprentices employment process

Aleppo Some students are employed and are studying in university or intermediate institute at the same time so they counted twice

2) Analysis of apprentices employment process The figures show low rate of employment 24% in Damascus, 17.5% in Aleppo, 5.5% in Homs, in average it is a bout 15.6% for apprenticeship graduates, it is

3) Restriction and obstacles for suitable employment Eco.

Factors Social factors Political factors Leg. factors obstacles for suitable employment

3) Restriction and obstacles for suitable employment Economic Factors Social Factors Arab Free Trade Agreement, Turkish-Syrian free trade agreement importing clothing products from China Most of postpone apprentices their try to work decision by enrolling into industrial institutes years Most up parents higher prefer follow– education because this improves the public sector employment, and improve social image decrease in demand for clothing industry workers affects adversely the private sector willing to participate in appren Female employees ratio in industrial private sector is 4,64 % and in public one 11,38%

3) Restriction and obstacles for suitable employment Political Factors Legisla tive.

Factors The political situation has led to the existence of compulsory military service for males at the termination of their education Training contract is just a training contract without any legislative force to employment, years and absent of effective security legalization , insurance most young people seek to extend the periods of education Employer refusing to support the system in training student .

influence negatively the effectiveness of apprenticeship system.

4) Results and Proposals RESULTS The effectiveness of of graduates’ employment in apprenticeship companies or others is very low There are a lot of factors influences the employment process and the employment rate The factors which apprenticeship can deal with is restricted to, that which apprenticeship partners can influence on .

Social Area 4) Results and Proposals PROPOSALS Military service Use of careers advisor Awareness events to apprentices and their parents about private sector.

Awareness events to employers about HRM/D,

Introduction of a two-year ‘supervised

employment’

serve in the army according to the profession

Learning pathway Training Contract

limit the percentage of higher education after secondary school by 25-30% from total graduates Introducing a training/employment contract that should be used in addition to the existing training contract in a flexible way

4) Results and Proposals

Apprenticeship authorities has to build a relationship with government employment office and private employment office, also with NGO’s like SYEA (SAYRIA ENTERPRENURE ACCOISTATION) to recognise apprenticeship graduates, and to help apprentices seeking jobs.

All of these proposals will be effective if implemented in parallel.

THANK YOU