Armenia’s First Information Technology Career Fair

arminfo
2007-06-22 13:08:00

Helping firms identify Armenia’s top IT graduates and assisting IT
graduates find the best jobs is the aim of Armenia’s first Information
Technology Careers Fair held on Friday, June 22, 2007 at the main
entrance of the Yerevan State University. Four major Armenian
universities offering degrees in Information Technology – Yerevan State
University, American University of Armenia, State Engineering
University of Armenia and Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University –
together with the USAID-funded Competitive Armenian Private Sector
Project (CAPS) and the Union of Information Technology Enterprises
(UITE) joined together to organize and host the event.

"All too often, recent graduates with skills and a high degree of
motivation to become productive members of the IT industry are unable
to make a connection with IT firms. Events such as this are proven to
systematically match employers with the best prospective new
employees," commented Hayley Alexander, Chief of Party of the USAID
CAPS project.

As well as helping to match potential employees with IT firms, the
careers fair will strengthen the relationships between professional IT
firms and Armenia’s IT educators, enable a better understanding of the
employee skills required by IT firms and enhance the role and capacity
of each of the participating universities’ careers centers. This is the
first event of its type involving each of the major
universities, the organizers say.

Hayley Alexander noted that the program is close to the goals and tasks
of CAPS i.e. creation of jobs and advanced training of labour force in
Armenia. The event is an important step towards development and
preparation of high skilled specialists in order that students are able
to find their place in the labour market. As IT-sphere is connected
with other economy sectors, it is desirable that the event is organized
every year, Hayley Alexander said. For his part, Yerevan State
University Pro-rector Arsen Karamyan said the fair is devoted to the
IT-sphere as many organisations competitive in the international labour
market are currently engaged in it in Armenia. Twenty-eight
IT-companies participated in the fair. Among them are VivaCell,
WestSoft, UITE, Sourcio CJSC, Cornet-AM, WEB, Arminco, Link, Synergy
Int’l systems, Boomerang Software LLC, Virage Logic International,
Broncoway and others who anticipate concrete job openings before
September 2007, and 4th and 5th year students as well as IT graduates
from each of the four universities.

Each IT firm had its own booth, in the large hall of the central
building of Yerevan State University, with information about the
company and the vacancies it has available. IT firm representatives
also made short presentations to highlight their job openings and the
benefits of working for their company.

Each university met with students in advance of the fair to offer
advice on preparing resumes and provide assistance in preparing
one-page summaries that will help companies quickly identify the
qualifications and skills of each participant.