PHIRI CAWE
“What a wonderful and a promising day,” quipped one job-seeker at the Beautiful Gate skills and development day, on Friday April 15.
The Beautiful Gate, in Philippi, was buzzing with more than 200 jobseekers interacting with service providers, among them government departments and other stakeholders such as Broadband College of Technology, Africa Volunteers Association, Harambee, Hope Africa Collective, Labour Department, Amandla Development, and False Bay Technical and Vocational Education and Training College.
The gathering was part of the organisation’s annual open day to introduce post matric students, who are not employed or enrolled at tertiary institutions, to different service providers. It also offered them good employement prospects.
Sonwabile Dwangu, a career and life-skills coach at the Beautiful Gate, said they strived for a vibrant promotional campaign that would draw service providers in, and give a better service to job-seekers.
He said the grim reality was that many matriculants sat at home with nothing to do, and the event aimed to link matriculants to organisations that run skills development programmes to make them employable.
“The idea is have them doing something, not sitting at home. We try and link them. Maybe they might be helped or get something that would keep them busy until the next year,” he said. “It is days like these that they get help, hope and opportunities.”
Jobs-eekers hopped from table to table, registering and getting advices.
“There is always a real buzz among all of our members. We make sure that our clients enjoy the day.
“We want them to give a service that is superb. We are bringing services to people. Our other aim is to go outside of the Beautiful Gate and help other matriculants who are sitting at home somewhere,” he said.
Job-seeker Nolubabalo Cekiso said she was excited to have had the opportunity to engage with different stakeholders because she had been struggling to find work since 2011. But after Friday’s event, she said, her hope was renewed.
”I hope this will help me find a job and training. I heard about this from friends who claimed to have been helped at an event like this. This is a beautiful day which I hope will bring good news. I have been to most tables to seek help. This will be a day to remember,” she said.
Ms Cekiso appealed to the Beautiful Gate to have more open days and to ensure that many more people get to hear about it.
Thandeka Sunduza, a career counsellor at the Department of Labour, encouraged job-seekers to make use of online and registrations portals, adding that most companies register curriculum vitaes online.
Ms Sunduza also encouraged people to always verify their information.
“We have a challenge of people who change their contact details and don’t update them. You will find out that one is needed, but that particular person has changed their number. We urge them to always see if the information they provided is still the same,” she said.