One of the biggest inhibiting factors that continues to hinder the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region’s local job market has been the failure to adopt education programs that cater to the current needs of the society, according to a report by TalentRepublic.net.

The report shows that the region allocates 5% of GDP and up to 20% of government expenditure on education. This has helped increase primary education enrolment by threefold and higher education enrolment by up to fivefold between 1970 and 2003.

However, this has not created gainful employment opportunities, causing a significant percentage of university graduates from several Arab and Middle East academic institutions to suffer from high unemployment.

The report emphasises the critical importance for academic institutions to offer more flexible undergraduate and postgraduate programmes that satisfy the evolving needs of the job market as well as investment in research to identify specific professions that are in demand.

This will subsequently help institutions develop more suitable academic programmes that are in tune with the changing economic situation.

The report also urged governments to provide information on occupational opportunities, create awareness about the job market and called for a greater focus on the development of technical skills, essential soft skills and the introduction of entrepreneurship and innovation in academic programmes.