Alderman James Vos, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, accompanied by ward councillors Allister Lightburn and Moosa Raise joined the Jobs Connect activation at the Avondale Hall on Wednesday 11 May.
This initiative forms part of the City’s Workforce Development Programme.
Vos explains the platform is designed to remove the barriers to finding employment.
These were made evident in a survey from Youth Capital advocacy group, which found young job seekers often spend more than R1 000 a month on job hunting resources, which include transport, data and CV printouts.
It further found 84% of jobless young people have to choose between looking for work or buying food, Vos said.
Jobs Connect, facilitated by Leelyn Management, seeks to dismantle those barriers through two overarching goals – to provide easily accessible knowledge, training and employment opportunities to job seekers and to link small businesses and corporates to the appropriate talent.
“As I watched people, most of whom looked very young, the country’s unemployment rate – now at a high of 35,3% – was constantly at the front of my mind,” Vos said.
“And yes, while this snaking queue of people gave face to the stark reality of unemployment this event was also not without a sense of hope and many people came to sign up.”
More than 41 000 Capetonians have been registered and assessed on the platform, 5 447 have completed work readiness training, 1 000 placed in learnerships, and 1 000 in jobs, Vos explains.
“We recognise that it is not up to government institutions to create employment,” he said, “but it is our duty to lay the foundations that allow for economic growth that reaches people all across this metro.”
Among the industries the platform has helped Capetonians find employment are retail, call centres and IT. Others have gone on various skills-development courses at Northlink, False Bay College and elsewhere to upskill for their future careers.
