Apr 10 - Job-Hunting In Gib As A Graduate
By Shameem Guilliano
It’s really hard to secure employment in Gibraltar – many of us would know. Unless you have a degree in law or accounting you’re essentially left to the Graduate Scheme for a number of years in the hopes that one of the companies you work for (for a ridiculously low wage) hires you after your contract is up. I agree that employment should never be handed to someone just because they ask, but do not pay for so many students to go to university and then have no employment opportunities for them when they get back unless, as said before, they have a degree in law or accounting.
Yes, maybe I should have done a degree in law and accounting but neither was what I wanted to do, and, yes, maybe I should have done a degree that guaranteed a secure career. Hindsight is 20/20. Obviously we graduates can try and get “jobs” - you know, waitressing, babysitting, cleaning but at what point do we start our careers? Are we doomed to work graduate schemes for the rest of our lives?
The government then spends hundreds of millions of pounds on lush developments for rich foreigners and investors and leaves the future of Gibraltar, their young adults, out in the open having to enrol at the ETB and applying for admin positions along with a thousand others applying with no qualifications. Employers have to wade through hundreds of irrelevant CVs for these jobs, so ours get lost in the pile of irrelevance.
If they even get to our CVs, we’re placed into the No pile anyway because we’re “overqualified” or they don’t want to take the risk hiring us just in case we leave within months for something better. Please, feel free to point me in the direction of something better because right now there really isn’t anything better - for me right now this is the best, which is why I’m applying.
This week the government announced the Business Nurturing Scheme (you can read about it here) which saw the establishment of a scheme which will support new start-ups in Gibraltar. Sounds good right? Well, they’re allocating a measly £250k to the scheme, with eligible start-ups being able to claim a maximum of £25k. I don’t have a degree in business so I can’t be entirely certain £25k is a good amount to help a start-up out but in relation to the millions being spent on lavish developments, they’re not exactly spending much (apart from paying for 100’s of our irrelevant degrees every year) to ensure young adults with good potential are nurtured.
So the option to start your own business is there and that’s a great idea if you have an idea and have the funds and a central location with good footfall. If you’re willing to shell out a couple of grand in key money for a rental in Main Street for a business idea that will probably fail within the year (a common thing in Gib) then feel free, but I would never take that risk. Let’s face it - Gib has enough perfume, electronics and jewellery stores as it is.
So here we are, a generation of young adults who have their degrees, who were all handed the money to pay for them with no hesitation and now there are so many of us totally lost either working freelance doing things related to our degrees or working a “job” with no end goal.
The government prides itself on its graduate scheme; the reality is hardly any of the graduates actually get hired at the end of their contract and are paid a pitiful wage. As long as companies in Gib can hire cheaper employees who will do the same job without any of the hassle the scheme brings them, they will continue to not renew contracts and hire a school-leaver for peanuts instead. They know an employee with a degree will expect a higher wage when employed long-term.
At this point, I’m starting to wonder whether I should have skipped Uni and just entered employment after my A-Levels. I know many people my age are thinking the same and have done for a while. It’s time we had an employment service overhaul that actually provides real opportunities for graduates that doesn’t just keep them quiet for a few months on a scheme contract. We want careers and livelihoods, help us achieve that and we’ll help Gib grow in return.
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