Graduates pack jobs initiative
HUNDREDS of young graduates hoping to get a foot in the employment door packed the Uitenhage Town Hall yesterday when a new jobs initiative was presented by Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip.
The proposed partnership – linking the municipality, private companies and the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA), along with the Department of Labour – comes as the Bay’s unemployment rate remains high, at 36.9%, according to the latest official figures.
The DA-led coalition has made employment a key part of its message to the public, vowing to create jobs.
Trollip’s plan is to log the details of work-seeking graduates on a central database which is then made available to companies that are hiring.
Application forms for job opportunities at the South African National Defence Force were also circulated at the event, one of several to be hosted by the municipality.
Trollip scaled his ambitions up this week after his office took on four unemployed graduates as interns last month.
“After having them work in the office I realised these guys had extraordinary talent and a lot to offer,” he said.
Trollip will now write to the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber and also publicly challenge companies in the city to absorb more interns.
He hopes to connect businesses with work seekers.
But some graduates had hoped for more than a talkshop at the gathering.
BA health science graduate Yolokazi Nongongo, 27, of New Brighton, said she had little hope of being placed in a company.
“I hoped we would be on a fast-track process of being placed on a database with our CVs, followed by an interview and later placed in work.
“But all we got was a seminar that I could have received at a career expo anywhere.”
Nongongo said she was desperate to find work as she had been struggling to secure anything in her field of expertise.
“This is all very frustrating because we don’t know if we will get jobs. All we can do is hope for the best.”