Ammon News - By Hani Hazaimeh/ Jordan Times

AMMAN — Many job seekers are discouraged by the bureaucratic procedures that accompany the recruitment process and end up losing an opportunity to find work, according to Labour Minister Nidal Katamine.

In an effort to curb this phenomenon, the Labour Ministry has been working on creating a “one-stop-shop”, which will eliminate the long waiting hours at government windows for stamping or filling out documents needed to complete the recruitment process, Katamine told The Jordan Times.

“This is a new concept that we will try to promote among employers and job seekers to facilitate the employment process, and, hopefully, it will boost the number of jobs taken by Jordanians,” the minister said in a recent interview.

He noted that the practice will cut down the period between applying for a job and being appointed.

The Labour Ministry launched the National Employment Campaign earlier this year with the goal of creating thousands of jobs for Jordanians in cooperation with the private sector.

More than 16,787 private sector jobs were filled by Jordanians during the first six months of this year, according to the minister.

“Although the number is encouraging, we at the ministry believe that we can triple it if we address the obstacles that discourage some job seekers from continuing with the application procedures,” Katamine noted.

“We are coordinating with all public and private entities to bring representatives of all stakeholders together to make sure that the employment procedures start and end at the same place.”

The one-stop-shop is expected to encourage more people to sign up on the ministry’s job search website, and will work on matching the job seekers’ skills with the jobs in demand, according to Katamine.

The ministry has allocated staff for this initiative to facilitate unemployed Jordanians’ access to the jobs available in the local market, he noted.

Moreover, ministry teams will carry out field surveys to measure qualifications and skills available among job seekers across the Kingdom to compile a detailed database which will be presented to employers, in an effort to ensure that young people are employed based on their qualifications.

“This initiative will offer job seekers a direct employment opportunity through connecting them directly with the employer,” the minister said.

“Our employees will act as consultancy agents and lead them through the process of selecting what fits their skills best. Our 22 labour directorates in the Kingdom are now electronically connected for this purpose,” he added.

“This is not exclusive to jobs available in the country, but will also connect them with job vacancies offered in Arab Gulf states through cooperation with labour consultants in our embassies there.”

Katamine cited the lack of required experience and skills as another possible reason why some unemployed individuals avoid applying for a job, noting that the ministry took this aspect into consideration and has been cooperating with the Vocational Training Corporation (VTC) and real estate companies.

“The VTC and private sector institutions will assign representatives to work with us at the one-stop-shop venue. They will be tasked with presenting whatever vocational training programmes they have to job seekers and register those interested,” he said.

The Development and Employment Fund (DEF) will also support the initiative, according to Katamine, who explained that the fund will have a window for citizens seeking to start small- or medium-sized enterprises, adding that priority will be given to pioneering ideas that can generate jobs.

“The DEF will help with the needed economic feasibility studies and connect fund seekers with experts in the same field to boost their chances of success and enable them to get a loan to translate their ideas into reality.”