Employability

Physical centers are limited in their reach and ability to scale. We believe that access to employability resources and information is a right of every youth in the Arab world – and that technology can help us provide this access directly and in a cost effective manner. We have therefore partnered with major IT and Telecom players such as Microsoft and the Qtel Group to create large scale web and mobile portals designed to support youth employment.

In April 2012, Silatech and Microsoft launched MasrWorks.com, Egypt’s first national employability portal, linking Egyptian youth to career guidance, training, eLearning, work readiness and internship and job opportunities. We are developing a similar initiative in Qatar to be launched by the end of 2012, followed by a regional rollout over the next two years.

While online penetration is high in the GCC, ITU indicators show that less than 30% of Arabs in non GCC countries are online. However, with over 70% mobile penetration, the most basic GSM phone has become our most inclusive entry point. Our first mobile portal – MobiWorks, is due to go live at the end of 2012 in Tunisia, and will be extended regionally across 10 countries by 2015.

One key service provided by career centers and portals is personalized guidance through our Tamheed platform, developed in partnership with UK based Mindmill. Through our pilot programs in 2009-2010, we discovered four main challenges to providing large scale access to quality career guidance for youth across the region: personalization of advice, availability of trained counselors (advisors), sustainability, and quality.

First launched in 2011, Tamheed is Silatech’s career guidance program; it includes online psychometric and language assessments, a career advising framework, and training and capacity building for career advisors. Youth workers can be trained to become Tamheed advisors in less than a week, creating a large pool of certified advisors offering personalized advice based on scientific reports.

Career Centers can use Tamheed and Bright Language Assessments to offer fee-based screening services for recruitment to potential employers, generating revenue for sustainability.

Since its launch, Tamheed has been used by thousands of young people across Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Tunisia and Qatar. A range of activities are now under way to expand Tamheed both in scale (reaching over 20,000 youth by 2013) and in the depth of support it provides youth and advisors.

Tamheed advising sessions help young people become aware of their own potential and interests. However, they often still need skills, experience, guidance and networks to transform this vision into a reality.

Our skills development initiatives are designed to empower youth as they develop the technical and soft-skills needed for employment. Like career guidance, skill development interventions are offered through career centers, vocational colleges or virtual employability portals. We support Youth Serving Organizations (YSOs) with curricula and capacity building, and hope to offer direct eLearning for language and technical skills to youth through our portals by the end of 2012.

The gap between education and employment cannot be bridged without real work experience. There is high correlation between work experience provision and placement success across workforce development initiatives; however, access to work experience opportunities remains a challenge for most youth.

This is a key strategic priority for Silatech over the coming year, and we are bringing innovation and technology to this complex issue through new pilots. Virtual Work Experience combines virtual freelance work with internships, enabling companies to offer projects on virtual marketplaces that students can complete for work experience, with the support of mentor-practitioners. We are also connecting young interns to youth start-ups using our portals and Tamheed assessments. These pilots are set for the third quarter of 2012, with the aim of preparing youth for both jobs and self-employment.

Project Name: Tamheed

Inception date: September 2010

Current status: Launched April 2011. As of October 2012, 50 advisors are delivering services in 13 centers.

Expected outcomes: 100 centers providing career advice to 10,000+ young people by end of 2012; 500 centers and 100,000 young people by 2015

Partner(s): Mindmill; Bright Language

Countries covered: Regional

Description: Tamheed delivers quality career advice and placement support services to be available scale. It provides youth-serving organizations (YSOs) with a complete toolkit for setting up a sustainable career advising practice. This includes highly predictive and user-friendly psychometric assessments from UK-based Mindmill delivered online in Arabic, English and French, the results of which can be used for both advice guidance and screening; advisor training and automated reports; language assessments from Bright Language; and, a framework for career advising that creates an action plan towards career success. Tamheed career guidance services are provided in physical career centers, as well as online. Tamheed is also integrated into Silatech’s and Microsoft's online employability portals (such as MasrWorks.com).  Tamheed’s psychometric assessments are also used by employers and training institutions to support the screening and selection of candidates, helping match candidates with the best-fit opportunities, while supporting the overall sustainability of the initiative.

Project Name: MasrWorks

Inception date: October 2012

Current status: Launched in April 2012. As of June 2012, the portal had over 2000 registered users, 10,000+ unique visitors.

Expected outcomes: 10,000 young people provided employability support by 2013

Partner(s): Microsoft

Countries covered: Egypt

Description: Egypt's (and the region's) first employability portal, MasrWorks helps Egyptian youth and job seekers find support to transition into the world of work. MasrWorks is available in both Arabic and English and provides resources ranging from online career guidance, employability and entrepreneurship training, to specific work experience and job opportunities. MasrWorks is the first of a series of regional employability portals that Silatech and Microsoft will be launching over the next few years, to bring together the diverse range of interventions and support available through public, private and civil society initiatives.

Project Name: Qatar Ta3mal

Inception date: May 2012

Current status: Early 2013

Expected outcomes: 2000 young people provided employability and entrepreneurship support by end of 2013

Partner(s): Microsoft, Bedaya Center

Countries covered: Qatar

Description: Qatar Ta3mal will be Qatar's first employability and entrepreneurship portal, supporting young people in Qatar make the transition into entrepreneurship or employment. Extending the success of the MasrWorks portal in Egypt, Qatar Ta3mal will connect youth to the many employability and entrepreneurship opportunities and resources available in Qatar, providing them with online resources, guidance and support on the Web and on their mobile phones.

Project Name: MobiWorks

Inception date: January 2012

Current status: Under development, expected launch at end of 2012 in Tunisia

Expected outcomes: Connect 3000 young people in Tunisia with opportunities and resources by end of 2013

Partner(s): Tunisiana, Qtel, ProInvest

Countries covered: Tunisia initially, with potential for regional scale-up

Description: MobiWorks is a mobile portal that will connect young people without Internet access to employability resources, financial inclusion and job opportunities via a basic GSM mobile phone. Offered in partnership with Tunisiana, the portal will aggregate opportunities from various youth serving organizations and enable young people to connect with them.

Project Name: Work Against All Odds

Inception date: June  2012

Current status: Implementation beginning in December 2012

Expected outcomes: Pilot to prove the Virtual Work Experience model with Palestinian youth in Gaza

Partner(s): Al Fakhoora

Countries covered: Palestine

Description: Virtual work experience program to help young Palestinian graduates build their skills, engage clients and create a positive track record in the virtual marketplace (ODesk or Elance). Program will work like an internship, with participants receiving skills, feedback, mentoring, and a nominal fee for services. At the end of the program, interns will have online portfolios to showcase their work, detailed feedback and support from managers and a solid track record of hours worked and reviews to post on the top virtual marketplaces. Virtual work experience, if successful, will be highly scalable, inclusive and prepare youth for both wage and self-employment.

Project Name: Emergency Support to Young Rural Tunisians

Inception date: May 2012

Current status: Implementation beginning in late 2012

Expected outcomes: 3,000 young people connected with training, internships and microfinance

Partner(s): World Bank, Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF), Tunisiana

Countries covered: Tunisia

Description: Program will provide emergency income support and short-term employment opportunities to approximately 3,000 youth (18-34) to help them meet basic needs through cash-for-work, training, internship and self-employment. Silatech and Tunisiana are supporting the mobile components of the project, ensuring that this support is provided inclusively and transparently through outreach and M&E. JSDF Emergency Window has provided funding for the project.

Project Name: Anapec Capacity Building

Inception date: May 2011

Current status: Ongoing

Expected outcomes: Career guidance and placement support to 5000 young people by end of 2013

Partner(s): Anapec, Mindmill, Bright Language

Countries covered: Morocco

Description: Silatech is helping Morocco's public sector employment agency, Anapec, provide unemployed Moroccan youth with training and job opportunities. Through its Tamheed initiative, Silatech has helped Anapec develop screening processes for candidates and provided tools and training for language, psychometric and aptitude assessments.

Project Name: Emploi Habilite

Inception date: May 2010

Current status: Pilot nearing completion, scale up expected to launch December 2012

Expected outcomes: In pilot, 400 young people from disadvantaged communities trained and connected to jobs in the hospitality sector. Scale up will embed the model within public sector institutions to create long-term sustainability with a target of 900 young people.

Partner(s): IYF, Ministry of Tourism

Countries covered: Morocco

Description: Program aims to equip disadvantaged youth in Morocco with technical and life skills and place them in tourism sector jobs. Implemented in Tetouan/Tangiers by the Sedraoui Foundation, and in Casablanca by CFA Jaber Ibnou Hayane. 98 Employers have participated in the program, offering internships and job opportunities to trained youth. Scale up will build public sector capacity to offer training, reducing costs and enabling sustainability.

Project Name: SilaQual

Inception date: May 2009

Current status: Established, services offered on a sustainable basis through partnership with Pearson

Expected outcomes: Making international levels of quality assurance accessible to public and civil society training centers in Arab world

Partner(s): Pearson Education, Edexcel

Countries covered: Regional

Description: SilaQual is a regional awarding body that accredits trainees and training centers at an international standard, creating an evidence-based bridge of trust between education institutions and employers. The accreditation of centers by SilaQual provides the necessary quality assurance framework through which high performing training centers can be incentivized to grow through connection with funding as well as manpower organizations. SilaQual makes international level of quality accreditations accessible to public sector institutes from a price, language, and capacity point of view.

Project Name: Yemen Construction Skills

Inception date: September 2009

Current status: Pilot complete, scale up on hold since April 2011

Expected outcomes: Create a model for delivering training, qualifications and long-term employability to young Yemenis in the construction sector in a sustainable and effective manner meeting international standards

Partner(s): Ministry of TEVT Yemen, Sana'a Community College, Qatari Diar, Consolidated Contractors Company-Yemen, Shibam Holdings

Countries covered: Yemen

Description: The program established a SilaQual accredited construction skills training center at Sana'a Community College, with 13 qualified public sector trainers who trained 1500 Yemeni youth over the program duration. The training center became self-sustaining within 6 months, and employers and trainees paid for training and qualifications offered to international standards. The program has been hailed as one of the few sustainable and scalable models for workforce development, successfully bridging the gap between public and private sector, and has led to the creation of an ethical manpower company to provide quality jobs to qualified workers.