City connects with job seekers

The City of Cape Town reached out to the unemployed in Bo-Kaap last Wednesday, raising awareness about an app that links them to job opportunities.

The empowerment stalls in the Bo-Kaap where job seekers registered themselves.

More than 100 people registered at the empowerment event and were introduced to JobsConnect.

“The average job seeker spends about R900 a month on looking for a job, taking taxis, printing CVs and so on. So JobsConnect is a platform where you don’t have to print CV’s or travel to different places to look for employment,” said Sisonke Makapela, a facilitator for JobJack business development.

“The user registers on JobsConnect, creates a profile and besides finding jobs there is skills readiness tests that they can add to their CV and learnership opportunities. They do this from the comfort of their home. We take this data match it to the relevant opportunity and we are aligned to a tech savvy society,” he said.

According to the Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released last month the Western Cape continues to have the lowest official unemployment rate at 25.8%

“I am always on the lookout for ways to broaden the economic participation of our city by developing programmes that will create jobs and benefit business. To address this we developed a new workforce development programme called JobsConnect,” said James Vos, the City’s mayoral committee member for economic opportunities.

“JobsConnect is fully funded by the City of Cape Town’s Enterprise and Investment Department and aims to connect job seekers with employment opportunities by providing training and job placement. We all know that unemployment is one of the biggest issues facing our country and now with the JobsConnect programme we can connect Capetonians with meaningful job opportunities by providing the right training.”

PR councillor for Bo-Kaap and District Six, Sumaya Taliep, said they identified two projects that could happen in the neighbourhood.

“We have identified that there is a need to clean up amongst the flats here, so the idea is to get weed-eaters and clean between these flats that are sectional title, so it’s not the City’s responsibility but it’s a project that includes the youth,” said Ms Taliep.

“We are also planning an empowerment workshop with the youth in terms of taking control of their community and environment. It will be about how to log service requests with the city among other skills and how to maintain and manage their environment, it will benefit them as they will be empowered, they will learn new skills,” she added.

Two job seekers who registered at the empowerment session said they were optimistic about being linked with JobsConnect.

“It was quite easy to register and I’m hopeful about this platform,” said Zufar Isaacs, 21, from Bo-Kaap. “It’s difficult looking for jobs. I look online every night and I send my CV to various companies but there are very few responses.”

“I think that Covid-19 has made it more difficult for us to find jobs, it put a stop to my studies as well,” said Naseerah Mwanangai, 19, an aspiring psychologist.

“I’m looking for a job, being a waiter, anything, but no one is hiring and it was easy to register on this platform so I hope that it will help us find jobs quick.”

JobsConnect facilitator Sisonke Makapele. In the background are Monwabisi Mtyiwazo and Tania Thomas.