Secure Jobs in Insecure Times

Transforming despair into hope – that is one task that Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) is carrying out with regards to the employment of youth in the Arab world and developing countries.

Benefiting from the potential of youths in building a sustainable organization has been one of CCC’s goals since the beginning. CCC was essentially created by new graduates whose motivation was to build upon and improve their surroundings. Later called the Graduate Under Development (GUD) program, the program was devised to provide a structured, dynamic, rotational orientation to new graduates in order to pave the way for challenging, stimulating, and long-term careers in the engineering and construction industries. The program generally runs for two to three years upon recruitment, depending on the progression of the individual graduate. It is operated within a framework of work plans aimed at developmental learning and experience, regular assessment and feedback sessions with supervisors, and a systematic record of work areas covered.

The program also ensures that new graduates are given access to seniors within the firm for accelerated learning and mentoring opportunities, and also spread across different countries to cultivate a genuine international experience. The program is recurring in order to ensure the demands of CCC’s business as well as the aspirations of graduates in terms of their training, development, and career progression. It offers continuous development of qualified, capable, and loyal staff as well as faster development and progress for supervisory, specialist, and managerial jobs.

Within the general CCC GUD program, there is the Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) GUD program, which is a pioneer program that offers a clear career path for new university graduates who wish to build their HSE careers in the construction industry.

Each year, CCC participates in job and career fairs to secure the placement of these young graduates on the job market. The Training & Development Department monitors their progress throughout the stages mentioned above. CCC is determined to invest and to retain GUDs who demonstrate abilities, personal qualities, and attributes worth developing. Thus, CCC’s policy is to detect as early as possible GUDs who do not respond to expectations put on them during recruitment and to minimize the attrition rate of worthy GUDs who have been trained.

CCC benefits from these new graduates’ perspectives, their comfort in using innovative technology, and their eagerness to learn in and adapt to different work environments. Their flexibility also facilitates their development and provides CCC with the necessary staff to fill different types of projects.

Through this program, CCC aims to provide youth in the Arab world and developing countries with secure jobs and to give them hope for a brighter future at a time in which unemployment is high among their peers and professional opportunities are lacking.