Siham Ayele, is a Program Director at Dereja.com, an Info Mind Solutions Company which is working towards tackling the issue of youth unemployment in Ethiopia.
She has earned her first degree in Political Science and International Relations from Addis Ababa University. She is known for hunting and nurturing the talent of young people and empowering them to be competent in their future career.
Unlike the story of most graduates in Ethiopia, Siham was fortunate enough that she was able to find a job while she was a second year student. Currently, she is one of the 50 employees that are working in the company that strives to ease the tiresome journey of finding jobs.
Siham Ayele, has stayed with the Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA) to talk about her journey and works in guiding the youth entering the labor force. Enjoy your reading!
What are the major setbacks that constraint the youth, especially women, from entering the labor forces?
There are a number of obstacles that hinder the youth, especially, female and fresh graduates to find decent jobs. According to my research, information inaccessibility is the first challenge that they encounter.
It goes without saying that the fact that there is inadequate job opportunity available in the market would affect their chance of being hired. Failing to know the alternatives that would help them find jobs being the other constraints, a recent study revealed that fresh graduates have a minimum of 20 ETB daily expenses throughout their search for decent jobs.
Unfortunately, women have less access to cover the aforementioned cash. Letting alone the global challenges that exist with unemployment, lack of self-confidence, avoiding risk taking, lack of experience in dos and don’ts of interviews are the other problems that drawback youth and women in the job market.
Can you tell us the interventions that your company undertakes to address the unemployment gap?
Actually, this is where the impact that Dereja.com, the company I work for comes in. Besides making the job market more accessible to the youth, we provide training centers that focus on maximizing their potential and employability skills.
Through each of the training we offer, the central point is making fresh graduates employable. To this end, we strive to meet one goal which is giving students a fighting chance in the challenges they encounter in the job market.
Moreover, by partnering with educational institutions, and employers, we try to help students develop and implement employability solutions that are aimed at making them ready for the job market.
What other efforts have you made to empower women students?
Since its establishment in 2017, the company has provided training for over 100 thousand graduating students. Aiming to create women leaders, the company also provides leadership training. Every year, about 30 female university students are granted with the opportunity while 90 students have seized the chance so far. However, the opportunity is limited to the capital; much work is needed to enhance the opportunity to different states.
On the other hand, we, at Dereja.com, provide training regarding use of technology. It is sad to see that let alone understanding how to use technology but most students especially women do not even have smartphones.
Since lack of knowledge regarding the use of technology remains a challenge in the job market, the training we provide includes use of technology like smartphones and computers. Thus, we have been working to address the existing challenges and have trained thousands of students.
Can you walk us through your family background and how it impacted you to be where you are today?
I have two sisters and two brothers and I am the last and spoiled child in the family. Unlike my siblings, I grew up in a family that prioritizes my freedom while focusing on my education. My father takes the lion`s share for the confident and strong girl that lives in me. Though my father approached the three girls in the house consciously, the intimacy he had with me was stronger for I was the last child for the family.
It would be a lie if I fail to say that the freedom I had given me the opportunity to explore more books written on various issues such as foreign relations, poverty, economy, history, among others, enabled me to develop good communication skills.
Moreover, the entrepreneurship training that I took while I was a first year student has helped me to engage in addressing the pressing challenge of unemployment in the country.
However, seeing the hardship that my elder siblings had been through while searching for jobs, I used to feel insecure concerning my future. I was even more concerned whether the department I joined had a market demand.
But when I keep thinking about my future, a book comes into my mind that I used to read when I was in preparatory school. This book has truly encouraged me to attend political science and International Relations field of study. It has also helped me to deeply focus on the economic and business issues.
What was the unforgettable incident you have encountered in your career?
I had once an opportunity to give training for about two thousand fresh graduates in Mekelle University. While I was giving the training, I was able to observe that the number of men trainees exceeded that of females by large. There were only five female students who attended the training. That shocked me!
Surprised as I was, I asked where the female students were. I was told that the students were in their dormitory and had no idea of the training. So, I made the five female students tell those students in their dormitory to come out and attend the training. That was how I got to train the students.
This is one of the main reasons I provide training for fresh graduates and strive to engage more female students to take part in the training.
Do you think you have impacted the youth, women and contributed your share in tackling the unemployment rate?
Though unemployment remains a global challenge, we believe that we have had our contribution and helped youths to find the right path when entering the labor force.
Besides being the major reason for the establishment of the Job Creation Commission, the coming into force of Dereja.com , we believe have brought about a significant change in pushing the issue of unemployment especially with regard to the issue of women to the front.
Moreover, we are doing our best to provide solutions to youth unemployment by implementing innovative and effective methods and creating trained workforce that are able to be competent in the market.
BY BETELHEM BEDLU
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 7 APRIL 2022
