‘How do small projects contribute to youth employment?’ was the title of a panel held on May 16 at the Seminar Hall at the University of Human Development. The panel was a joint endeavour between the College of Administration and Economics and College of Law and Politics. The speakers were Dr Parwar Omar, Mr Hoshmand Muhammed and Mr Nishtiman Othman – all are lecturers at the University of Human Development.

The panel aimed at introducing the idea of small projects or businesses to students so that they can work on it for their future. Youth unemployment including university graduates is a rising problem in Kurdistan.

The panellists tried to explain to the audience the importance of small projects and how they would contribute to benefiting individuals and also the development of society. They provided examples and showed the steps that must be taken by the beginners and the tools and methods needed for the success of small projects. Another aspect of the subject was the obstacles that small businesses face in Kurdistan and Iraq.

Kurdish youths will need to learn to rely on themselves for work and employment. The public sector has reached the saturation point and can no longer add employees in large number, and the private sector is small and its capacity to create jobs is highly limited. The solution is to learn to establish and own a business even if it is small. This was what the panel tried to explain.