By Katya Schwenk
Rabat – The 25th annual EMI-Enterprises Forum will take place April 3 and 4 at the Mohammadia School of Engineering (EMI) in Rabat.
For a quarter century, the forum has drawn reputed companies to Rabat to recruit Moroccan students and recent graduates seeking employment. It is the flagship event of EMI, a leading technical university and Morocco’s first engineering school. King Mohammed VI has sponsored the event since 1999.
In 2018, the event recorded a stunning attendance of 90 enterprises and over 10,000 visitors.
The forum puts on roundtables, conferences, and workshops in addition to recruitment events, bringing in CEOs and industry experts to coach students on their job hunts and discuss the event’s broader theme.
This year, the theme is “Economic intelligence: a strategic asset for enhancing innovation,” EMI announced in a press release, saying that the topic was at the heart of today’s corporate climate.
For Moroccan students, the event offers a chance to connect with potential employers. Morocco’s enduring unemployment problem has frustrated college graduates for years, who often find that a diploma gives them little edge in the job market.
Government employment data released February revealed that diploma holders suffered unemployment rates nearly five times higher than those of non-diploma holders (17.115.4 percent compared to 3.5 percent). These numbers have contributed to the exodus of educated professionals from Morocco in search of employment in recent years.
Morocco’s Minister of Education Said Amzazi said in January that more than 600 engineers leave the country each year for work. For Moroccan companies, EMI’s forum may prove one way to combat the brain drain.
