INTERVIEWER: MAHMOUD MANSI
EDITOR: NADA ADEL SOBHI
About AIESEC:
It is the world’s largest youth driven organization. This is the National Chapter of AIESEC Egypt (aiesec.org.eg).
AIESEC has 60 years of experience in developing high-potential youth into globally minded responsible leaders.
Present in over 107 countries and territories and with over 50,000 members, AIESEC is the world’s largest youth-run organization. Focused on providing a platform for youth leadership development, AIESEC offers young people the opportunity to participate in international internships, experience leadership and participate in a global learning environment. What makes AIESEC unique is the youth driven impactful experience that it offers to its members. AIESEC is run by young people for young people, enabling a strong experience to all its stakeholders.
THE INTERVIEW
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: What is the main goal behind AIESEC International? And what is the main one behind AIESEC Egypt in specific?
Abdelrahman Ayman Ibrahim: Peace and fulfillment of human kind’s potential has always been what we envision as an organization, and we believe that fostering leadership in youth through exchange is one of the fundamental solutions to tackling the world’s issues. AIESEC in Egypt is one gear in this huge machine producing young leaders for the world, and we believe in our fundamental role in bringing young leaders that are solution-oriented, self-aware, with the ability to empower others, while being empathetic towards what’s happening around them in their country and the world.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: In the past three years AIESEC Egypt has witnessed a huge turn and thus it was the reason for thousands of success stories from Egyptian and non-Egyptian interns. What sort of development happened in AIESEC Egypt that caused such success?
Abdelrahman Ayman Ibrahim: This turnaround all started by having the right leadership in place, that would put this organization on a path towards fulfilling its promise, keeping the essence at core, and caring for continuous progress.
We believe now that through our growth we will have a bigger impact, and could one day be able to bring AIESEC to all young people in Egypt, in addition to building our capacity to be able to accommodate for the biggest possible number of foreign interns exposing them to the true colors of Egypt.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: According to Egyptian interns, what does AIESEC offer them? And does the experience they have actually benefit them when they graduate and work in Egypt?
Abdelrahman Ayman Ibrahim: AIESEC in Egypt provides short and long-term internship experiences to youth from around the world, both in the volunteer and professional fields. The main thing in common that is present in all types of experiences we provide is that LEADERSHIP is the center skill we aim to develop. Being equipped with such a skill, in addition to being exposed to challenging work environments contributes to building our interns’ competence, and character which has a direct impact on their ability to embark on future career paths. Being exposed to the country’s reality and culture, interns can develop the required understanding of the market in Egypt. This can certainly support them in case they want to pursue future career paths here in Egypt.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Why do non-Egyptian interns choose Egypt in specific as a working environment and work with its NGOs?
Abdelrahman Ayman Ibrahim: I believe this is due to a couple of things, first of which is the reality of the country and the presence of multiple issues that could be tackled through the social sector and civil society, which is an intriguing venture for youth who are interested in active social work. The second of course is the history, and heritage of our country which makes it one of the leading destinations for young people interested in discovery and building their cultural awareness about the oldest civilization known to humanity.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: What are the challenges AIESEC Egypt faces? And how do you overcome them?
Abdelrahman Ayman Ibrahim: The key challenges we face are down the lines of access to resources, and our ability to build our capacity to accommodate for the largest possible amount of young people, while maintaining the standard quality of the internships we offer. Another challenge is our ability to gain and maintain access to student markets (Universities and so on) to be able to offer them our programs on regular basis.
We overcome these challenges through constantly seeking innovative solutions that would enable us to utilize the least amount of resources possible to generate the biggest impact, and we try to get access to youth through multiple channels other than just universities, such as social media, clubs, educational centers, etc.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: What is the influence of AIESEC Egypt on tourism?
Abdelrahman Ayman Ibrahim: AIESEC in Egypt has previously worked with the Ministry of Tourism on a project called “For the Love of Egypt”, which had an impact on 200 young participants from around the world. The main aim was to equip these young people to be ambassadors of Egypt in their countries when they go back home, and promote Egypt as a destination through social media, blog posts, even printed materials, and of course the word of mouth.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Who can join the team of AIESEC Egypt, and how?
Abdelrahman Ayman Ibrahim: Any young person between the ages of 18-30 that has graduated at maximum within the past two years. Youngsters could join AIESEC Egypt either as volunteers or exchange participants through contacting any of our local committees either on campus, or through social media.
Be a Global Citizen and Volunteer Abroad for 6-12 weeks by applying here:
http://podio.com/webforms/13323067/904804
Be a Global Talent and have an International Internship Abroad for 2-18 Months by applying here:
https://podio.com/webforms/12781217/872259
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: What is your opinion regarding unemployment in Egypt? What are your suggested solutions?
Abdelrahman Ayman Ibrahim: I believe two crunch issues present in the labor market in Egypt are actually underemployment, and un-employability, which lead young professionals to undertaking jobs that are below their standard of education, or make them unable to find employment due to their lack of skills in-demand currently by the market. We believe that through programs that are similar to what we offer, active working groups can offer young people the opportunity to expand the horizon of their thinking while they are still studying at university, which at this point in time I believe is a pre-requisite for any young person to be able to seek proper employment.
Finally, I’d like to conclude that I believe that leadership development in young people is the solution to many of our issues. If we build a young generation that is capable of leading themselves first before anyone else, we will enable them to help this country evolve beyond what any current generation could.
HR Revolution Middle-East Magazine: Thank you so much Mr. Abdelrahman for your efforts and for this valuable interview.
Official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/aiesecegypt/timeline