INAP Conference Italy- Turin 17-18 September 20079

1. Transition to employment of apprenticeship after graduation Obstacles in Syria YomnaDallalBashi Apprenticeship Data Base Manager Eng.AntonAljouni HRM/D Freelance consultant INAP Conference Italy- Turin 17-18 September 20079

2. Syria Population 22,331,000 Area 18,517,971 [hectares] Economic Environment Ongoing transfer process to Socio-Market Economy Aleppo Hama Homs

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 1) Employment Process in Syria Official Process. Graduates Government employment offices Queue Employees Job Fairs Unofficial Process. Private employment offices Random employment

7. 1) Employment Process in Syria Government employment offices Queue DISADVANTAGES ADVANTAGES Confidential, Free service, Public sector employment, Career guidance service, Social aspects, Huge database. Poor relations with private sector, Central decisions Bureaucracy

8. 1) Employment Process in Syria Job Fairs DISADVANTAGES ADVANTAGES direct relation between employer and job seeker, organised process, short time. limited to 2 governorates only, in some cases high cost

9. 1) Employment Process in Syria Private employment offices DISADVANTAGES ADVANTAGES Flexibility, try to have a good responsiveness to private sector. Not well organised, non-legislative, charged service, hasn’t career guidance service, hasn’t social aspect.

10. 2) Analysis of apprentices employment process

11. 2) Analysis of apprentices employment process Damascus The table shows the law percentage of employed graduates which is 24%.

12. 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

13. 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

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

15. 3) Restriction and obstacles for suitable employment obstacles for suitable employment Eco. Factors Social factors Leg. factors Political factors

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

17. 3) Restriction and obstacles for suitable employment Political Factors The political situation has led to the existence of compulsory military service for males at the termination of their education most young people seek to extend the periods of education Training contract is just a training contract without any legislative force to employment, years Employer refusing to support the system in training student . Legisla-tive. Factors (Unfair) current labour law and absent of effective security insurance legalization , influence negatively the effectiveness of apprenticeship system.

18. 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.

19. 4) Results and Proposals PROPOSALS Social Area Use of careers advisor Awareness events to apprentices and their parents about private sector. Awareness events to employers about HRM/D, Military service Introduction of a two-year ‘supervised employment’ serve in the army according to the profession Learning pathway limit the percentage of higher education after secondary school by 25-30% from total graduates Training Contract Introducing a training/employment contract that should be used in addition to the existing training contract in a flexible way

20. 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.

21. THANK YOU