Expo in LU offers 1000 jobs while former labor minister criticizes economic policies

Major companies offered more than one thousand jobs in various disciplines at the Career and Orientation Expo, 2015 held at Rafiq Hariri City of the Lebanese University. The event which included seminars, lectures and a panel of big corporations and holdings from Lebanon and the Middle East, was opened by former Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas with the participation of the Dean of School of Law and Political Sciences, Camile Habib representing Lebanese University President Adnan Sayed Hussein, the Director of the Branch 1 of Law School, Hussein Obeid and a number of faculty and students. Farhat Farhat, director general of EDUCITY which is the organizing party specialized in education, highlighted the educational purpose of the exhibition which consists in inviting high school students to discover job prospects in the domestic labor market. On a different note, Nahhas criticized the present employment conditions in Lebanon noting that opportunities available do not match with educational standards. He added that the type of jobs currently available become largely occupied by foreign workers, mainly in the construction and agriculture fields, in domestic work and at gas stations. The Lebanese worker, he said, is left with the only option of immigration where he or she can use their education credentials and succeed according to their competence. Nahhas disclosed that during one year of his term as a Labor Minister, he signed some 200 thousand job permits for foreigners against some 200 work applications from Lebanese nationals. He reiterated that the primary choice for the Lebanese citizen is to emigrate, seek a job in the country through favoritism or get involve in some family business, all in the context of absence of secure income, and of professional or career dignity. (Al Akhbar, 29 April, 2015)