Amman-27 July, 2015

 

On the 26th and 27th July 2015, GJU hosted a national workshop on “Strengthen the employability of Jordanian students through Career Services” under the patronage of Prof. Natheer Abu Obeid, President of the German Jordanian University (GJU). The workshop provided a platform for Career Counselors, academic staff, implementing organizations and the private sector to discuss the current situation of Career Services in Jordan and future steps to increase the employability of students from Jordanian universities.

The workshop was organized by the Office for Industrial Links (OIL) at GJU in cooperation with the Career Service of Aschaffenburg University of Applied Science and the support of the King Abdullah II Fund for Development-Career Guidance Office (KAFD-CGO) at GJU.

After the Official Opening by Britta Kaehler, Director of the Office for Industrial Links, GJU President Prof. Natheer Abu Obeid, and Dr. Yousef Abdallat, Dean of Student Affairs, KAFD-CGO, officially welcomed the participants and emphasized on the importance of this topic in the presence of the Vice-President Prof. Manar Fayyad and the Deans of GJU. The participants included Career Guidance Counselors of the KAFD-CGO’s of several Jordanian universities, as well as academic career advisors from GJU, representatives of implementing organizations and the private sector.

Ms. Stefanie Luniak (OIL) and Mr. Ernst Schulten (Career Service Aschaffenburg) introduced the cooperation project between their universities on “Establishing Career Service Structures and Processes at GJU”. The workshop was the kick-off event in the frame of this cooperation, which is funded through a DAAD DIES project.

The workshop was moderated and facilitated by two experts from the Career Service of the University of Muenster in Germany, Andreas Eimer and Dr. Jan Knauer, who introduced their work at one of the biggest universities in Germany. In their introduction presentation, they focused on the practical challenges in preparing students for the job market in Germany and how to collaborate with companies in attracting and hiring students.

With this background information, participants openly and frankly discussed the situation in Jordan: What kind of training and services could a Career Service offer? How to overcome the qualification gap between universities and the labor market? How to increase the awareness of students regarding training and job opportunities?

The two-day workshop left the participants highly inspired and with concrete ideas on how to enhance the services at their universities for students and companies and thus strengthen the employability of their students. The event was also an opportunity to network and the participants agreed to meet in the future to further exchange ideas and to develop a platform for common activities.