With precision on the interview with the general manager of Expertise France
MOSSUL (awp/afp) – The University of Mosul in Iraq welcomes around forty companies on Sunday for a job fair, organized to help students from a metropolis whose economy is still carrying the stigma of the war against the jihadists.
Organized by Expertise France, a public technical cooperation agency, in partnership with the two universities of Mosul and Nineveh (north), the three-day fair also offers training in writing a CV and preparing for a job interview.
Representatives of multinationals, such as the large Carrefour distributor based in neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan, or the French electrical equipment giant Schneider Electric, are present. However, the majority are local businesses, particularly in the construction or agri-food processing sector.
On the campus lawn, dozens of students wander among the stands, noted an AFP correspondent.
Like many young unemployed people, Laith Abdallah, 24, has been looking for a job since he graduated in 2019 as a petroleum engineer. “Our numbers are increasing day by day and opportunities are rare,” he laments.
“A young person must get married, help his parents, they did not work hard so that in the end you remain at their expense at home.”
Reconstruction is stalling in Mosul five years after the defeat of the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group. Unemployment in Nineveh affects around 40% of 18-65 year olds, and one in five young people between the ages of 24 and 45, according to the province’s Statistical Department.
Moustafa Aziz, 26, works for Mosul Solar. He hopes to recruit graduates specializing in renewable energy or electrical engineering.
“Our technologies are recent, we need specific skills and expertise, we organize training to hire young people,” he boasts.
The event is part of the “Yanhad” project, funded by France and the European Union, explained to AFP Jérémie Pellet, director general of Expertise France, reached by telephone by AFP at the eve of the show.
“It fits in with our perspective of looking for future prospects and diversification of the private sector economy for Iraqi youth,” he said.
Due to a last-minute impediment, his trip to Mosul could not take place, but his opening speech was broadcast by video.
By supporting a business incubator, the project has also trained “around 320 young people in entrepreneurship and financed around ten start-ups”.
The president of the University of Mosul, Qussaï al-Ahmadi, calls unemployment “an ogre that devours the dreams of youth”.
Its establishment has approximately 70,000 students. But thanks to the show, he hopes for “employment opportunities for hundreds of young people.”
str/tgg/awa