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  • Graduate Unemployment Rising in Armenia

    Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
    IWPR Caucasus Reporting #655
    Aug 24 2012


    Graduate Unemployment Rising in Armenia


    Employers looking for solid experience rather than paper qualifications.

    By Gayane Asryan - Caucasus

    In Armenia's fiercely competitive job market, having a good degree is
    no longer enough. Many graduates say they cannot get a foot in the
    door because employers are asking for substantial work experience
    rather than formal qualifications.

    Take Artur Baghdasaryan, who got a degree in marketing from the State
    Economics University in July. Although he has the kind of
    qualification many employers need, and has had some practical
    experience as an intern, employers will not look at him.

    After completing an internship over several months while still a
    student, Artur was told he could not be hired because he did not yet
    have a degree. Now that he has graduated, he gets told that what he
    lacks is prior experience of work.

    He has been to seven different employment agencies so far, and IWPR
    accompanied him as he continued his job search.

    At Chance, a private job agency, head Irina Karapetyan, said Artur's
    lack of a track-record would be an obstacle.

    `In my experience, I've never seen a single case where someone has
    been taken on with no experience,' she said. `Few companies will agree
    to do so, and they will pay 30,000 or 40,000 drams [roughly 70 to 100
    US dollars a month], thus exploiting the individual for a few months
    before saying goodbye to them.'

    Because of the reputational risks involved in marketing, most
    employers will not take on inexperienced recruits, partly to avoid the
    trouble of having to train them.

    Two other employment agencies visited by IWPR said they had nothing
    suitable to offer Artur.

    Artur was philosophical about these setbacks, saying, `I won't lose
    hope - it will just take longer to find a job. The key thing is that
    I'll have to be ready to work unpaid for several months.'

    Anahit Parsadanyan, who heads the department for analysing and
    forecasting the labour market at the state employment agency, said
    graduates were accounting for an increasingly large proportion of the
    unemployed.

    While the official unemployment rate has fallen by nearly 15 per cent
    since last year, university graduates now make up 16 per cent of the
    total, compared with 12 per cent in 2007.

    `Employer attitudes towards higher education have changed,'
    Parsadanyan said. `I can assure you that they don't pay attention to
    diplomas now, and often set out requirements that are simply
    ridiculous, for instance work experience or an excellent command of
    several languages. How can an accountant have an excellent or fluent
    knowledge of three foreign languages?'

    Tatevik Abrahamyan, manager of HR.am website - one of the largest
    online recruitment advertising services in Armenia - confirmed that
    nine out of ten employers seeking to place ads there underlined the
    importance of at two of more years in previous work, a knowledge of
    languages, and teamwork skills.

    `Only when a candidate has met the specifications does an employer ask
    what university they graduated from,' Abrahamyan said. `Employers are
    acutely aware that a degree doesn't mean someone is any good, so they
    attach great importance to experience.'

    Nor are internships an automatic route into paid work, according to
    Armine Haroyan, head of the scholarship programme at the Armenian
    Educational Foundation. All too often participants come away with
    little to show because the internship has been mismanaged.

    `To put it mildly, universities are failing to pay enouth attention to
    internships,' Haroyan said. `Some students admit that although they
    fully understand the theoretical bit, they've failed to acquire the
    practical skills that will give them a head start into work after
    graduation.'

    Experts say that the success of private universities in recent years,
    coupled with more exacting demands from employers, has left too many
    graduates chasing after the same jobs.

    There is still demand for some professionals like doctors, vets,
    accountants and finance experts - but as Parsadanyan pointed out,
    these jobs are mainly outside the capital Yerevan and the salaries on
    offer are low.

    Other graduates find that their degrees are simply not in demand.

    Anna Yeghiazaryan has a degree in Persian language from Yerevan State
    University and has spent the last five years trying to find a job
    where she can use it.

    Persian should have been a safe bet, since Iran is a neighbour of
    Armenia, and trade and other relations are growing. Yeghiazaryan now
    realises that too many others had the same idea.

    `I thought that since our country had friendly relations with Iran, in
    future there would be more interest in and demand for Persian, but it
    turns out there are so many experts in the language that they've
    saturated the job market,' she said.

    Yeghiazaryan has survived on freelance translation work, but needs a
    regular job.

    `A few months ago, someone from an employment agency rang me up and
    offered me a job as an office manager. I was really disappointed,' she
    said. `I love and respect my profession and I've dedicated eight of
    the best years of my life to obtain it, so I am not going to give up.
    I'd rather go abroad to find work than be forced into working as an
    office manager here.'

    The question is whether, and how, government should intervene to get
    higher education and employer expectations more into sync.

    `I agree that the relationship between education and the labour market
    isn't very balanced,' a spokesman for Armenia's education ministry,
    Artur Baghdasaryan (no relation of the marketing graduate), said. `We
    can't stop applicants going into higher education on the grounds that
    they might not find jobs in future - that would deny them their right
    to an education.'

    The head of the state employment service, Sona Harutyunyan, says
    better communications should be established between employers and
    jobseekers.

    `We have set up a new programme within which we are running
    internships designed specifically for the young unemployed. The
    three-month practical courses will give them an opportunity to gain
    relevant skills that correspond to what employers are asking for,'
    Harutyunyan said. `We're also holding labour fairs where employers and
    those looking for work can interact.'

    Gayane Asryan is a reporter for eMedia.am.

    http://iwpr.net/report-news/graduate-unemployment-rising-armenia

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