Hundreds of thousands of Tunisian youth are enhancing their employment prospects by subscribing to a free, new mobile service offered by Tunisiana, in a programme that has the potential to enable young people around the world achieve their ambitions.
The Middle East and North Africa has seen great change in recent years, but many people – especially youth – face barriers in reaching their goals. These barriers include poverty, lack of quality education and high unemployment. In Tunisia, for example, young people face an unemployment rate of more than 30 percent for the under-30s.
In-line with its vision of supporting human growth, leading communications company Ooredoo is encouraging its operations around the world to find new solutions to these challenges.
In Tunisia, Tunisiana, part of Ooredoo, partnered with Silatech and Edupartage to launch the “Najja7ni Employment” mobile service in April 2013.The strong response – with more than 300,000 customers signing up for the service in the first month – is indicative of the urgent demand for mobile services in this area. Silatech is a social initiative that works to expand employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people throughout the Arab world, while Edupartage is a social network dedicated to education and society.
The first mobile service of its kind in the region, “Najja7ni Employment” provides career guidance, financial literacy, career search strategies, links to local training opportunities and tips on how to start a business. It uses an innovative and engaging method for customers to learn these topics, including quizzes, SMS alerts, coaching and psychometric tests, delivered via their mobile phone.
“Najja7ni Employment” is available for any mobile device, including feature phones, to ensure it can reach the widest possible audience. The service is currently available in French, and will soon be available in Arabic and English to reach Tunisia’s diverse population.
The service is part of the growing trend for community-conscious communications companies to use the latest technology to address key social issues.
Dr. Nasser Marafih, Group CEO, Ooredoo, explains: “Across the Middle East and North Africa, youth unemployment is a major issue, and it has an impact of the individuals, their families, their communities and the wider economy of the region. At Ooredoo, we believe we have a responsibility to promote human growth, and we can have a real impact in enabling young people to achieve their ambitions. We are studying the success of Tunisiana’s ‘Najja7ni Employment’, and assessing how this approach could be mirrored in other markets in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.”
Portable, accessible and increasingly powerful, mobile phones are playing an increasing role in driving economic opportunities in developing markets. For young people, they are a primary source of job information, and play a growing role in education and training.
Tunisiana is one of the trailblazers in the field of mobile information services. “Najja7ni Employment” is the third in the “Najja7ni” series of mobile services, following 2010’s “Najja7ni Education”, a revision service based on the official course curriculums of the Ministry of Education, and 2011’s “Najja7ni mEnglish”, which helps customers to learn English.
Dr. Nasser concludes: “Mobile phones play a key role in the lives of young people, helping to organise their social lives, providing them with entertainment and increasingly helping them enter the world of work and pursue their ambitions. Communications companies need to find new ways to help them to do this, and I’m proud that Ooredoo is taking a lead in this area.”
Dr. Tarik M. Yousef, CEO of Silatech, stated that “With the launch of ‘Najja7ni Employment’, we will be able to reach youth in even the most marginalized communities, connecting them with skills and employment opportunities.”
Dr. Yousef added: “Importantly, Silatech’s partnership with Ooredoo exemplifies the type of collaboration between development organizations and the private sector that is absolutely essential to fostering employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people in our region.”
Ooredoo is also supporting a range of innovation and entrepreneurial start-up programmes in Algeria and Tunisia, to address the issues of economic development.
