Haramaya University’s Career Development Service Directorate conducted a Job Fair Expo and Panel Discussion with this year’s graduating students and potential employers from June 28-29, 2018 at University’s Afran Kallo Hall and Resource Center.
During the opening ceremony of exhibition, Mr. Dejene Geshe, Director for the CDSD, said, “The Career Development Service Directorate was established very recently; nonetheless, it has done lots of activities so far in collaboration with Ethio-jobs. The core mission of the Directorate is to develop skills and knowledge of the students to make them competent on job market and the Job Fair is also one of the core activities planned to be accomplished by the Directorate.”
According to Mr. Dejene, the program aspires to achieve major objectives such as increasing the employability of the fresh graduates by exposing them to practical experience about the needs and interests of potential employers; giving chance to fresh graduates to identify potential employers in the country; promoting the image of the university to employers and media outlets in the country; and helping the Directorate observe skill-gaps of the graduates and devise different trainings to bridge these gaps.
Prof. Nigussie Dechassa, Vice-president for Academic Affairs, in his key note speech pointed out the relevance of the recently signed contractual agreement with ethio-jobs and how it would increase employability for graduates. In addition to this, the University has also been conducting different soft skill trainings to graduating students adding to exposing them to practical experiences such as internships, field trips and so on.
Among the graduating students, Fikadu Girma from Civil Engineering, Abreham Getachew from Sociology departments said the exhibition was very important and has motivated them. The interactions they had with the potential employers and knowing their interests was very helpful to prepare their CV and apply for jobs, and makes the process of searching for job a lot simpler.
The second day saw a panel discussion with company owners and stakeholders. On the occasion, participants addressed the problems that hinder the quality of education and the lack of performance of fresh graduates as well as the needs and interests of potential employers in the country at all levels.