A look at Jordan's forthcoming Career's Forum

Young people need to come and look for themselves and see what the tourism sector can offer them by way of jobs and career development. Young men and women, especially those after the age of 18 can come and talk to employers, whether its in hotels, touristic transport, restaurants, as tour guides, or even high class chefs," says Kawar.

The chairman adds through this careers forum we want to start changing perceptions that wrongly exist among our youths that opportunities in tourism are dead end jobs, far from it, we want to tell them about the career paths that exist, even if you start right down at the bottom of the ladder.

On the fringe of the Careers Forum, there will be seminars and workshops to make visitors aware of what is happening in the expanding tourism sectors and how career opportunities are pursued.

"We will be highlighting real success stories of people who started at the bottom, and with determination made it right up to the top," Kawar points out.

Tourism today is a flexible and dynamic business supported by many sectors of the economy, including the government. Young people youths can enter as bell boys and quickly become supervisors, start in the kitchen and become chefs, and/or food and beverage managers, enter in the laundry and work yourself up.

All these jobs are definitely not menial but involve a required degree of skill Jordanian youths and others should know about to start changing perceptions and hopefully join them in greater numbers. The careers forum comes under the USAID support and is funded by the Jordan Tourism Development Project, Siyaha.

"Once somebody told me they did a survey of students on housekeeping, and every one thought it involved somebody coming in and cleaning rooms, they never knew housekeeping is an art, a structure of employment, starting at the beginning, progressing to become a supervisor, then a housekeeping manager.

"This is what the careers forum is really all about, employers telling people in addition of course to real job opportunities that exist on the spot," concludes Kawar.