THE Public Service Commission (PSC) yesterday described its maiden job fair held at the Heritage Village, Liberation City in Harare, as a huge success which laid bare the vast skills that Zimbabweans possess.
Graduates under the age of 30 thronged the fair and got an opportunity to interact with the Office of the President and Cabinet, Government Ministries and the PSC to get insights and possible employment opportunities in the public sector.
The PSC was impressed by the level and numbers of educated youths who are willing to join the public service and contribute to the growth of the country as it journeys towards the attainment of an upper-middle income society.
Prospective employees left their details at ministries where they could be employed and some will be contacted for interviews and subsequent employment in Government.
Those who will not be employed after this exercise, still have a chance to be engaged when opportunities which require their expertise arise from time to time within the public service and private sector as well.
PSC chairman Dr Vincent Hungwe said the country has skills and a lot of qualified personnel willing to work in the public service.
He said next year they will roll out a trainee programme that attracts young graduates, adding that they are seeking to reformulate strategies on how to effectively engage in a more intensive and extensive fashion.
“We want to ensure that apart from just inviting these youngsters to come and participate in this fair, we are going to introduce a deeper and wider system of internships and graduate trainee programmes,” said Dr Hungwe.
“What we have noticed here, we almost always assume that there are no skills in this country (but) the skills are there.
“There are a lot of exciting young engineers, young graduates in information communication technology that are willing to become part of the governmental system as we try to modernise the way we do business as Government.”
Dr Hungwe said from January next year, they may start with a new graduate trainee programme that invites young graduates from universities in different sectors of work and are going to be engaged for two years and thereafter be placed in different sectors of the public domain.
PSC secretary Dr Tsitsi Choruma said the job fair achieved the intended target and rubbished claims that Zimbabwe no longer has skilled personnel.
She said there are vacancies in the public service which they seek to fill, especially with the coming in of new ministries.
“We have achieved what we wanted to achieve. We wanted to meet face-to-face with these young people to understand who are the people behind the names we sometimes see in our database,” said Dr Choruma.
“But also we wanted to see the reality on the ground. We have quite a number of our young graduates, professionals who are unemployed.
“It is a challenge not only to the Public Service Commission, but the whole of society. We can employ as much as we can, but we want also to send a message to all sectors that the skills are here.”
Dr Choruma said there was no need to speak about skills running away, as more skills are still available.
The PSC said it was regrettable that some people travelled from other provinces to attend the job fair, when other provinces will get a chance to host their own fairs.
A job seeker, Mr Tanaka Jongwe, who attended the fair, said: “I studied Chemical Engineering and I was told my qualifications are needed in Government so I have left my CVs at the ministries’ booths and now I hope for the best.”
Miss Makanaka Moyo said she studied Local Governance at the Midlands State University and she also left her CV and hopes to be recruited.
Miss Mpiloenhle Ndlovu said: “This was a good initiative. I interacted with all the ministries and I realised that they can all take human resources personnel.
“I studied HR. This kind of exposure is important and hopefully one day, I will be employed.”
A PSC staffer, Ms Keresinah Machimbirike, said the job fair was fruitful and “an eye-opener to those who don’t have information to register at PSC”.
“It went on well with our Secretary (Dr Choruma) hands-on and addressing the graduates personally,” she said.
Herald
