Workshop strengthens youth job-seeking skills
MORE than 100 unemployed young people were schooled on how to write the perfect CV, nail a job interview or even start their own businesses during Buffalo City Metro’s first ever Pitch & Polish workshop.
The concept is an initiative by the BCM Youth Development Council in partnership with Absa.
The workshop was held at the East London Golf Course yesterday.
Participants were given the opportunity to present or pitch their CVs to an audience or a selected panel, which included staff recruitment agents, in a mock interview.
The youth council’s Sipho Kilani said many young people struggled to find jobs and when given the opportunity to be interviewed for a job some crack under the pressure.
“The confidence to project yourself and best define your work ethic in line with that of the employer is at times not an easy process.”
The citizenship manager at Absa, Andy de la Mare, said the training was to help the youth become economically active. “It important to remember that business cannot succeed in a failing society, so when the society lacks economic activity it’s not good for us,” said De la Mare.
Sonwabile Matshaya from Reeston said he hoped the skills and knowledge he acquired during the process would assist him in landing his dream job. The 29-year-old works as a security guard in Nahoon but his dream is to become an electrical engineer.
“I came straight from my nightshift job to attend this event this morning. I told myself I cannot sleep and let this opportunity pass me by.”
Kilani said they were planning more workshops throughout the year. BCM’s head of special programmes, Xolani Witbooi, said in a metro where joblessness was high, they had to partner with the private sector to address such challenges. —