Annual Sunnyside career expo and job fair a success
The event attracted learners from Pretoria, Tshwane Secondary Schools and the general public.
Youth from Sunnyside and surroundings were empowered at the third annual Sunnyside career expo and job fair last week.
The initiative started in 2017 by local councillor Godfrey Mulaudzi in partnership with Think-Career organization and Harambee with the aim of giving residents of Sunnyside especially the youth sound career advice.
“Since then I have been inundated with calls from people who wanted the event to continue and pledges of support. The expo continues to grow and enjoys a groundswell of support, both in terms of exhibitors, sponsors and high schools and community participants,” Mulaudzi said.
The event attracted learners from Pretoria, Tshwane Secondary Schools and the general public.
Mulaudzi said most of the residents of Sunnyside were youth in high school or college.
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He said those out of school were mostly unemployed and looking for something that will give them that break into a job.
“We want to bridge the skills gap and bring employment opportunities to the youth. Sunnyside and the inner city as whole has a huge problem of drugs, alcohol abuse and crime in general. These social ills mostly affect our youth, who subsequently end up losing focus on pursuing their careers. The expo brings information to them for free,” he said.
Mulaudzi said the expo focused on post school education and training to enable the youth to align skills development plans with career ambitions “in the fourth industrial revolution”.
“It is also a platform to strengthen collaborations with TVETs, CETs and Universities with labour market. To give social partners a platform to pledge support and commitment to help our youth,” he said.
Mulaudzi said since inception, the expo has attracted more then 5 000 participants.
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“We showcase exhibitions from sector education and training authorities, further education and training colleges, technical vocation education and training, companies, universities, private providers, government departments and business,” he said.
He said he wants to encourage business, government departments and communities to also take ownership of this initiative and support the youth.
“I envisage that formidable partnerships will be created to support our youth with skills development, bursaries or scholarships and job placement. As the ward councillor I’m challenging everyone to support this initiative to help our learners go to university or college. We have adopted these schools’ matrics and we want to invite companies, universities, colleges, SETAs, government departments, employers, business and other social partners to fund the top 10 performers,” he said.
Mulaudzi told Rekord that the two schools were historical disadvantaged.
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“For job placement, companies that are looking for youth to train and or employ must contact us as we have a huge database of the unemployed youth here in Sunnyside. This is how we are benchmarking the successes of the expo.”
For pledges of support, Mulaudzi said he can be reached on 063 694 3443 or email on lindelanim2@tshwane.gov.za.
Lerato Marutha from Pretoria Secondary said the expo was beneficial and worth attending.
“I have learnt a lot at this expo and I feel ready for next year. It has helped me choose which field of study is perfect for me,” she said.
Sentle Lesetla from Tshwane Secondary school said the event was productive.
“There was a lot of useful information that I got, it has filled a huge gap” Lesetla said.
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