Durban - If you're undecided on what career path to follow or struggling to find a job, head to the free three-day inaugural eThekwini Youth Employability Indaba and KZN Career Expo this week to set you up for success.
The event, aimed at providing youth with access to employment opportunities, career information, scholarship and bursary information, will be hosted at the ICC from Thursday until Saturday.
It is a joint initiative of the eThekwini Municipality, the Durban ICC, eThekwini Maritime Cluster and Independent Media and will be a one-stop shop of resources catering for the youth, students, aspiring young entrepreneurs and pupils in Grades 11 and 12.
Greg le Roux, the group executive of events and membership at Independent Media, said the company would host three conferences over the three days.
The Conversational Corner will see sports and entertainment stars, local heroes and influencers in informal panel discussion with attendees, talking about topics related to paths to success, unlocking opportunities and sporting career opportunities among others.
“Through the Careers Conference and Career Opportunities programme, the youth will have direct access to key state institutions like the University of KZN, Durban University of Technology, University of Zululand and others."
"Experts will be giving formal career guidance in nine sectors of industry."
"And through the self-improvement workshops, we will empower youth with various life skills, tackling aspects like CV-building, interview skills, exam preparation and more,” said Le Roux.
Rani Sitaram, the director at East Coast Media, will be on the panel of industry experts.
The company, which started in 2000, saw a need not only to create quality work for clients, but to develop young people who wanted to explore the broadcast media world.
“We started a training college, called Movietech Film and TV College, soon after our company started."
"We saw there was a skewed legacy in terms of economic opportunities, and decided that we needed to play a part in creating access to this broadcast industry,” Sitaram told Independent Media.
Soon after the academy began training young people, Sitaram said they created a learnership programme, which also catered for people with disabilities.
“There was clearly a need for this, and we partnered with the Department of Education and created a channel based at the Open Air School for learners with disabilities in Durban."
“This gave a voice to people from all backgrounds."
"With this, we were the first to implement a fully-interactive workplace learnership that catered for able-bodied students as well as those with disabilities.
“We found that the education about this needed to happen with the student, and with potential employers.”
She said employees with disabilities were often the most dedicated.
For more info, visit www.kzncareerexpo.co.za or Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: KZNCareerExpo; or contact Mabuyi Mosai at 0312669937.