Experience for entry-level state jobs no longer required

From 2019, job seekers will no longer be required to have work experience for entry-level government jobs.

This was announced by public service & administration minister Ayanda Dlodlo at the East London ICC on Thursday.

She also announced that the Z83 government job application form will be a thing of the past. The department will pilot the digital Z83 form on December 12 with the hope of going full swing in 2019.

She was speaking at the University of Fort Hare’s participatory budget workshop. Dlodlo said that asking recently graduated people for work experience did not make sense.

“We are also scrapping the need for experience for entrylevel jobs. We are continually looking to alleviate the crisis of unemployment, especially among South African youth.”

This is a welcome development as unemployed youths have been complaining over the years about being asked for work experience despite being newly graduated from tertiary institutions.

The minister said the decision to scrap the form was informed by a number of factors which included government’s plans to create a paperless society and the outcry by young people of having to fill out a form every time there is a vacancy.

“Every time I interact with young people on Twitter and other social networks, the issue of the Z83 would come up and the dominant feeling was that it was holding a lot of job seekers back. Furthermore, we want to digitise the government and eventually create a paperless society,” said Dlodlo.

The two-day gender conference attracted international

We are also scrapping the need for experience for entry-level jobs. We are continually looking to alleviate the crisis of unemployment, especially among South African youth Ayanda Dlodlo Public service & administration minister

speakers who deliberated on how the state can achieve a gender-responsive budgeting.

Finance MEC Oscar Mabuyane, who was also a guest speaker at the conference, said gender-focused budgeting should be used as a mechanism to level the playing field on political, social and economic standing for men and women.

Mabuyane said the high levels of poverty recorded in 2017 have hit women the worst.

“In 2017, Stats SA revealed that almost 50% of the South African population lives in poverty. I can bet my last cent that women are the worst affected by this. Where they lead, women have proven to be efficient, productive and reliable.

“All the troubles we are experiencing in state-owned entities and government in general are caused by men. Perhaps it is time to give women a chance to fix our mess,” he said.