|
|||||||||||||||||
| Our clients | Our Services | Job Hunting | Relevant Legislation | Job Listing | Feedback |
Featured Jobs |
|||||||||||
|
|
ARTICLES |
||||||||||||||||
CAREER FAIR EXHIBITION: SHAPING THE FUTUREBY BRUCE CHOOMA - TIMES NEWSPAPER (21/09/07)Upon finishing secondary school education, most pupils get gripped with anxiety as curtains of schooling slowly drop and the reality of personal independence dawns - another world awaits them – a world of dreams, expectations, career decisions and job hunting. “Young people should be ambitious and determined, but ambition without knowledge means nothing. As we complete our secondary school education, we need information to make the right career decisions”, said Mayaba Bbuku, head girl at Mary Queen of Peace school in Lusaka. At the recently held national career exhibition and fair for secondary school pupils in Grade 12 at Mulungushi International Conference Centre, Mayaba conceded that choosing a career was a major challenge for school leavers. Many ended up deciding on the basis of their results, while others simply picked on anything that came their way-due to lack of first hand information on skills and careers that are on demand in the industry. Having been raised by a single parent since the demise of her mother when she was only six, Mayaba’s life was changed. She had to learn responsibility at a tender age and being her father’s only daughter, she actively sought to pursue engineering to more or less fit in her father’s shoes. The father is an engineer by profession. To her, the fair was motivating and provided vital inspiration to understand and appreciate the challenges before her. “Wow! There is a world of opportunity out there. I didn’t know of such interesting careers as those in geology and many others that pertain to the mining industry”, Mayaba said. The national career fair for grade 12 pupils, the first of its kind to be held in Zambia, was officially opened by Vice President Rupiah Banda last Tuesday. The event was hosted by MAC Recruitment and drew over 5,000 pupils from 23 different schools in Lusaka, mostly from Government run. Presentations were made to eager pupils in the packed conference hall, session, from the 15 companies that participated. The companies spoke about the various opportunities that exist in their institutions and gave projections of careers that would be on demand in the coming years. Another pupil, Innocent Nawa of Munali High School, said he loved working with a computer and had decided to study Information technology though he had no idea of what he needed to concentrate on to realise the dream. “The fair has just brought light to my dream, I love computers and from the presentations from various institutions that offer IT training as well as the companies that employ computer experts like the mines, I now know what subjects I need to concentrate on and the required grades. I did not even know the different types of computer studies one can pursue but now I have the knowledge”, Nawa said. The fair was an effective public-private partnership initiative where the needs of the market in terms of human capital were highlighted and opportunities availed first hand to pupils before they completed school. Government thrust in economic expansion efforts is currently heightening, the fair could not have come at a better time, as it is expected to fully prepare and equip the youth to find their place in national development. “While Government has made very significant progress in stabilising the economy and ensuring the good macro-economic performance, our partners in the private sector need to actively join the drive to ensure that our human capital base is developed to world-class levels”, said the vice president. Mr Banda urged the Central Statistical Office and other agencies to come up with strategies that would see the provision of relevant information about human capital and particularly regarding the status of youths. Education minister, Geoffrey Lungwangwa commended the private sector for taking an active role alongside Government. Such cooperation would strengthen career guidance and counselling in schools to adequately prepare the pupils for fieldwork. Lumwana Mine, one of the sponsors of the event, observed through their corporate affairs manager, Nathan Chishimba, that corporate needed a philosophy of sustainable investment by ploughing back into the community where they operated. Mr Chishimba said when Lumwana was established in Zambia, there was an absence of technical skills and the mining firm took steps to offer 74 scholarships to students to study at the University of Zambia. Mac Recruitment IT and administration officer, Kasali Musenge observed that there was a serious skills gap on the market for artisans such as diesel mechanics, auto mechanics, instrumentalists and heavy duty technicians who are needed especially by the mining industry which is growing at such a fast rate. “The Fair was meant to help bridge the gap between skills needed and the market demand and hopefully from the presentations, the young people have now seen the vast opportunities existing in the mines. It does not make sense to be an accountant – the industry is just about saturated, why not become a diesel mechanic and get a job immediately upon completing training”, Ms Musenge said. She described the response from the schools in Lusaka as great adding that plans were underway to make it an annual event and hoped to extend the initiative to other parts of the country. “We worked closely with career guidance teachers to hold this exhibition and some have travelled from other parts of the country to see what we are doing and hopefully replicate this where they come from because essentially these teachers should be the ones to facilitate career exposure at school level”, Ms Musenge said. Michael Shinde, a Grade 12 pupil from Munali expressed fascination at the opportunities in the mining sector and seems to have a clear idea of where he is going after school. “I did not know that Zambia is developing the biggest copper mine in Africa and had such powerful mining equipment, the presentations by Lumwana Mine has really been good and I know what the real choices are for a young man like myself”, Michael said. It cannot be denied that effective career guidance in the public education system had in recent years crumbled despite the school system churning out more graduates than ever before, hence the initiative of having a career fair is timely. A lot has been said about the dwindling employment opportunities in the country and the challenge of youth unemployment seems to be at its peak, yet the same companies in the country are not succeeding to find the right cadre of workers which gives an indication that career prospects have been narrowed. This is so, because there has been a mismatch between labour market demand and training provision. Chongwe District Career Guidance Coordinator Raphael Haambozi commended the Ministry of Education for realising the importance of career guidance by putting in place measures to revive it by way of training teachers and ensuring each school had a career guidance teacher. “Years behind the Government was on the right track in terms of career guidance but we went off track somewhere along the way, but now the ministry is intensifying training of teachers in career guidance and starting the concept of peer guidance counsellors who are themselves pupils who team up to form clubs”, Mr Haambozi said. Luanshya Teachers Training College was the only institution offering career guidance training but now the National In-service Teacher Training College (NISTCO) in Chongwe is now offering such training so that the country could scale up the provision of such cadres to education system not just in high schools but in basic schools as well. Mr Haambozi prodded the Ministry of Education to continue sponsoring teachers for training so that they could help to improve the quality of career guidance and counselling in schools. As Mr Banda observed, Zambia needed to adapt from the perception that the only available jobs at hand were those from the traditional sectors, further observing that there have been many changes in the manner existing companies conducted their businesses which has affected the labour market. He commended Mac recruitment for coordinating the Fair, which he said was a positive step that should become an annual event and thanked the Ministry of Education, Zesco, Lumwana Mine, Bank of Zambia and the Copperbelt University for supporting the event. The Fair and Exhibition was a great indication that country is making steady progress in ensuring that the nation’s future is safeguarded and it is entirely up to good use to take charge of their future.
Contact us: 260-1-266247/266248 Site last updated: 12 November 2010 10:07 |
TRAINING
PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS Divisional Product Development Manager
|
||||||||||||||||
