Draftees will henceforth get the option to attend courses in the fields of information and communications technology during their mandatory military service.
A memorandum of understanding was signed on March 5 between the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to help draftees learn skills during military service.
As per the law, all Iranian males upon reaching the age of 18 must serve in the armed forces for 21 months to be eligible for employment or traveling abroad, provided they are not pursuing higher studies.
Annually, about 400,000 people turn up for military service.
Making better use of the time spent by draftees during the mandatory military service has been on top of President Hassan Rouhani’s agenda in recent years.
Chairman of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri said that based on the MoU, the government has agreed to identify employment opportunities for the draftees, Telecoms Ministry’s website reported.
He noted that the armed forces will provide the infrastructure and the equipment for training soldiers, adding that national and international certificates will be issued.
As per the agreement, 200,000 draftees will receive training in the fields of ICT. Training centers have been established since March 2017 in military bases to give soldiers a chance to utilize the time they are obliged to spend serving the country more productively.
An exam will be held among soldiers with a Master's or higher, and the selected soldiers will then undergo training.
The Faculty of Applied Science of Post and Telecommunications, affiliated with the Telecoms Ministry, will be in charge of providing the course content.
Vahid Yazdanian, the head of ICT faculty, is of the opinion that information and communications technology is a vital infrastructure for all sectors of the economy.
He noted that the measure will be implemented to help create jobs for soldiers trained at the military bases.
“Meetings will be held in the future to assess job opportunities and MoUs can be signed between academic institutions and guilds and companies”, so as to ensure job opportunities for draftees.
Another agreement is in the making, which will allow qualified draftees to pass an internship course or work in knowledge-based firms in lieu of serving in military bases.
Sorena Sattari, vice president for science and technology, said that as per the agreement, the draftees will be able to spend the last 6-12 months of their service doing an internship course or work at knowledge-based firms.
“A list of companies will be drawn up which will include firms based in technology parks and other entities approved by the Ministry of Industries,” he added.
A special website will be launched for the scheme through which conscripts can upload their resume for work in the most relevant fields.
