Alumni and volunteers participate in a training for "Jisser."

Alumni hosted a workshop in Muscat to train a team of alumni and volunteers selected to help expand a new website platform called Jisser. Similar to the goal of LinkedIn, Jisser was developed to connect companies with Omani youth for the purpose of creating new internship programs. The workshop provided volunteers with the names and contact information for various companies throughout the country in order to promote networking and focus on increasing the number of internship opportunities available – opportunities that would be made public on the Jisser platform.

The topics covered during the workshop included strategies that participants could utilize when approaching businesses, companies, and education institutions in order to sell the platform idea. Most of the workshop was devoted to open discussions on Jisser, and how this endeavor would have a positive impact on the current challenges Omani youth face with regards to finding high quality internship programs.

Alumni and volunteers were taught how to navigate the Jisser website to best serve those students and graduates looking to expand their knowledge and skills as interns. Jisser co-founder Kulthoom Kmaiyasi commented, “throughout my hectic journey to find a future place for myself in the job market while I was still a student, I trained at a large scale international company, Sultan Qaboos University, and another company classified as an SME. I found that these experiences had a lot to offer, and I was able to create a name for myself. I believe a big part of the success of any internship program lies in students' knowledge of their personal goals. This makes it easier for companies to tailor training programs that would benefit both its business model and the student.”

Organizers and particpants thought the workshop was a success, and look forward to doing future workshops. The next step is for Jisser representatives to network with assigned companies and develop as many new internships as possible that would be showcased on the Jisser platform.