Engineering job fair set to open this week
Engineering job fair set to open this week
The third Job Fair at the Faculty of Engineering of the National University of Laos (NUOL) will take place this Thursday from 9am to 4pm at the university's Sokpaluang campus in order to introduce students to job opportunities.
The fair was announced last week at a press conference given by the Deputy Dean of the NUOL Faculty of Engineering, Associate Professor Keo-Oudom Sensavath and the European Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Laos (ECCIL) Director Dr Ramon Brueseller, along with representatives from the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LNCCI) and sup porting organisations.
According to the press release at the conference, the main objective of the fair is to bridge the communication gap between the academic world and the business community. On one hand there is a lack of awareness by the students of where their studies will take them and which broad variety of employment possibilities are available in the labour market.
On the other hand companies have a hard task to communicate with students in order to explain the nature of jobs or the opportunities vacant positions provide.
Currently around 5,000 students are enrolled in ten different departments within the faculty and about 1,300 of them will graduate at the end of June.
Although the fair is mainly targeting this year's graduates all students are invited, even from Vocational Schools as well as higher secondary schools, not only to stimulate them to establish clearer career plans and to get informed about diverse education and training options but also to support them in obtaining desperately needed internships.
Besides giving potential employers the opportunity to describe and portray their organisations, the organisers have placed a lot of emphasis on offering further attractions.
In previous job fairs, for example, AIESEC together with Pôle d'Activities Francophones offered workshops teaching students how to act appropriately during a job interview.
Panel discussions with human resource staff on how to be best prepared for interviews offering challenging job opportunities drew a lot of attention from the students who were eager to hear first-hand experiences and suggestions.
In this context, the companies repeatedly emphasised how important it is for young Laotians to take over responsibility not only for their own work area but also for the success of the entire company.
Furthermore, all students had the chance to get informed about studying abroad and receiving scholarships from a broad range of organisations like the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
The coming Job Fair has attracted more than 30 companies and organisations, ranging from mining to insurance, from hydropower to garments.
Many exhibitors are expected to offer a large variety of vacant positions. Besides the interaction with the students, the companies will get in touch with academic staff in the faculty to exchange ideas on how to improve the study courses according to t he demands of the ec onomy.
The fair has been a success by all standards in the past and the organisers will build on lessons learnt for this and future years. It is almost mandatory, therefore, to already add the 4th Job Fair onto the calendar for 2015.
This event had been jointly organised by the Faculty of Engineering, ECCIL, and the LNCCI. It also received valuable support from the Association International d'Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales (AIESEC), Pôle d'Activities Francophones, and the Gesellschaft fur International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
vientiane times
