adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
THE National Employment Services Department held a Careers Day for secondary schools in Bulilima district recently.
The event was held at Tokwana High School under the theme “Entering the realm of entrepreneurship development”. Addressing guests and pupils, Bulawayo Polytechnic acting principal, Mr Gilbert Mabasa urged pupils to attain high levels of education.
“Unemployment levels in the country continue to rise but pupils should only view this situation as a temporary challenge. It should not affect a student’s endeavour to attain basic education and advance to higher levels.
“As the theme for this year’s career day suggests, the best prescribed response for a student is to continue with basic education while acquiring skills for the informal sector,” he said.
Mr Mabasa said schools had to nurture an entrepreneurship mindset among pupils as a majority of students produced in schools lacked skills training.
“Many pupils who are produced by schools possess a good general level of education but they lack skills that enable them to diversify in cases where they are not engaged in the formal employment. Entrepreneurship development is therefore crucial in preparing students for self employment once they leave school.
“The emphasis in schools has to move from solely preparing one for the formal sector to cultivating a culture of business-minded students,” said Mr Mabasa.
He said professionals from different organisations had the mandate of demonstrating and presenting the skills found within their organisations to pupils in order to provide them with a deeper insight into the career world thereby assisting them in making informed decisions. “I would like to urge various organisations to effectively present their activities in order to inspire pupils. Career Days present endless job opportunities and offer new exciting career ventures.
“This is a great advantage especially for pupils who are in rural areas as they are not exposed to industries compared to pupils in urban schools,” said Mr Mabasa.
In an interview, provincial employment officer for Matabeleland South, Mrs Siphilile Ncube said there was still a huge gap between the work environment and rural pupils.
“These careers day programmes that we hold are an attempt to bridge the gap between the working environment and the rural school environment. Rural schools are located far from towns which makes it difficult for the pupils to access information on careers.
“Through these careers day programmes that we hold every year the gap is slowly closing. It is difficult for pupils to travel to industries and organisations due to financial challenges hence we are trying to bring the organisations to pupils through programmes like career days,” she said.
Mrs Ncube said the failure of pupils to complete their studies was still a challenge and there was a need for more career day programmes to motivate them.
Organisations that were exhibiting at the event included Lupane State University, Joshua Mqabuko Polytechnic, Bulawayo Polytechnic, Zimbabwe Human Rights Lawyers Association, ZRP, TGCA, Rushtech, Agritex, National Employment Services Department, Pension Office and the Garment Construction Department of Tokwana High School.
Online Reporter