Dereja, who has been hosting annual job expos in the past, has taken a different approach this year due to the impact of Covid-19 and will hold the first virtual job expo in Ethiopia tomorrow, August 27, 2020.
The virtual career expo organized in partnership with the Job Creation Commission office and the Mastercard Foundation’s support aims to support fresh graduates on their search for employment and link them with employers with a virtual platform.
Dereja, who made the virtual transition to continue its activities online, plans 5,000 potential candidates and 500 Dereja academy trainees to be scouted and prescreened by over 100 potential employers for an employment opportunity within this year.
This event has a companion training series where students are provided with resources to enhance their employability skills.
Through this virtual expo, employers will be able to scout and prescreen potential new hires while practicing social distancing. The platform will also contain two banquet halls (50 booths in each room), where employers can set up their booths to chat with candidates.
The virtual career expo will be a 1- day event and have HR conferences and webinars for the students to engage with while waiting on their turn for an interview and interacting with employers.
Established in 2016, Dereja is the social enterprise division of Ethiojobs, an online job recruitment platform.
Through the job fair, Ethiojobs aims to tackle youth unemployment by organizing job linkage platforms and provide job readiness and employability skills training for fresh graduates.
For the past two years, Dereja has organized the annual career expos, and the company claims to have managed to link over 6,000 graduates with employment opportunities.