Amman - MENA Herald: Millions of young people across the MENA have limited access to employment opportunities, and they find themselves unable to become economically active in their communities. Starbucks’ ‘Opportunity Café’ initiative has been designed to provide aspiring youth the training they seek, to realize their professional dreams.
‘Opportunity Café’ is part of Starbucks Global Month of Service which is carried out worldwide each year during the month of April to support the community where we operate. For the second year in a row, Starbucks forms the largest partnership in the Middle East and North Africa region with Education for Employment (EFE) and bayt.com supporting youth in landing their dream job through a professional CV writing workshop in Jordan.
A youth survey conducted as part of the 2016 Opportunity Café revealed that young people consider “poor CV writing skills” as a primary obstacle in their pathway to employment. In 2016, Starbucks launched the largest CV writing workshop in MENA in collaboration with bayt.com and EFE reaching nearly 1,000 youth customers across the region.
This year, Starbucks takes ‘Opportunity Café’ a step further by organizing a coalition of experts with Bayt, EFE, Silatech and AMIDEAST to provide a wide range of professional advice for youth on the subjects of entrepreneurship and employment. The scale of this initiative spreads across 10 countries impacting youth across MENA.
In Jordan Starbucks’ collaborates with EFE in organizing the workshop on CV writing, offering strategic advice from key experts supporting youth to improve their CVs and interview skills as they seek employment opportunities. The workshop will take place on April 24 and will be organized simultaneously across 2 Starbucks stores.
Commenting on the occasion, Rana Shaheen, Regional Communications and CSR Manager for Starbucks MENA, said, “At Starbucks, we continue to support youth across the region to find opportunities and inspire them to reach their maximum potential. This year we have partnered with the experts in employment and entrepreneurship to form the largest coalition, giving local youth the opportunity to pick up valuable insights over a cup of Starbucks coffee and setting them on the path to success. We are proud to continue supporting our youth in the region with the necessary career guidance they seek.”
“With 30% of youth in Jordan unemployed, for too many young women and men feel that securing a job is impossible. It does not have to be this way. At Jordan EFE, we have ten years of experience in linking youth to the right skills and opportunities they need to secure a job. We are pleased to join Starbucks in offering the Opportunity Café for a second year in a row, to provide more youth with guidance on how to best market themselves to employers and increase their chances to land a good job.” – Ghadeer Al Khuffash, CEO, Jordan EFE
In 2011, Starbucks declared April as its Global Month of Service, creating the opportunity for Starbucks partners (employees) and customers to connect and volunteer in the community they serve. Since 2013, Starbucks MENA has contributed over 20,000 service hours to its local communities and brought together over 3,000 volunteers in 34 city-wide projects across 10 markets in the MENA region.
