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08 June 2023 | Story Danelle Fisher | Photo Lunga Luthuli
Career Services
Pictured are student representatives from House Vergeet-My-Nie, winners of the 2023 Inter-residence Work Readiness Challenge. With them is Nobesuthu Sonti, Senior Officer, Career Services (holding a mic), and on the right is Petunia Rooibaaidjie, Career Ambassador.
The Career Services division within the Department of Student Affairs recently (May 2023) held their first-ever Inter-residence Work Readiness Challenge. The challenge, targeted at students in residences, called on students to submit their CVs and cover letters to the UFS Careers Office. 

Students from the Bloemfontein Campus residences were challenged to submit as many CVs, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles as possible, with the most submissions winning the challenge. “Having the Inter-residence Work Readiness Challenge was to increase the employability of the University of the Free State students through a healthy competition among students on the Bloemfontein Campus,” states Nobesuthu Sonti, Senior Officer in the Career Services office. 

Nineteen out of 28 residences competed, with students submitting their documents on Blackboard; Career Services recorded 486 submissions in one month. “The response from students is an indication that they were not aware of the support that Career Services can offer regarding their CVs and cover letters,” explains Sonti. 

The initiative also revealed the challenges students have in compiling CVs and writing cover letters, and how to articulate themselves during mock interviews. 

Sonti said: "Most students were not aware of what to include in their document, which affected the quality of content submitted. Through the mock interviews, we found that students struggle to articulate themselves and are not able to sell themselves,” said Sonti. 

House Vergeet-My-Nie came out as victors in the end, having submitted more CVs and cover letters than the other residences. Sonti encourages students to seek career guidance and contact the office to assess their career paths and be offered private career coaching.

  • The Career Services office offers students workshops on how to write CVs and cover letters, networking, and job-hunting skills to improve their employability. It further offers career guidance and mock interviews, together with a career closet where students can pick out interview-appropriate outfits for their interviews.
You can contact the Career Service office at the following email address: career@ufs.ac.za

News Archive

Kovsies proud of a gold PRISM Award for safety campaign
2015-05-05

Stefan Lotter, Leonie Bolleurs and Lacea Loader. All three are from the Departement of Communication and Brand Management at the UFS.
Photo: Hannes Pieterse

The University of the Free State, takes pride in the gold PRISM Award (from the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa) for the B Safe Take Action safety campaign that has been rolled out on the campus since 2013 by the Department of Communication and Brand Management.

The campaign earned the Von H Brand Provocateur gold award in the internal communication category.

“The UFS is the only tertiary institution to receive a gold award. The award is a great honour for the department, considering the cream of South African public relations took part in the competition, and the standard was naturally very high. It was also a feather in the cap for us that the uniqueness of the campaign received national recognition from our peers in this manner, said Ms Lacea Loader, Director: Communication and Brand Management at the UFS.

The university is responsible for about 32 000 students and 4 000 members of staff on its three campuses: the Bloemfontein and South Campuses in Bloemfontein and the Qwaqwa Campus in the Eastern Free State. It is of cardinal importance for the university that its students, staff, and assets are safe.

Apart from safety measures that have been implemented by the UFS Protection Services, the B Safe Take Action campaign has also been rolled out on the three campuses of the UFS. The campaign supports the safety strategy of the university. It is aimed at developing a culture of safety awareness in students and staff alike. The purpose of the campaign is for staff and students to take ownership of their own safety. In addition, it creates awareness of the safety measures that are in place at the UFS.

The campaign has been rolled out on various communication platforms. These include placards, pamphlets, lamp-post advertisements, an advertisement board, emails, and messages on student communication portals such as Blackboard, the UFS web and intranet, social media, information boards in the campus parking areas and on the pedestrian walkways as well as messages on refuse bins around the campus. “The fact that a variety of communication platforms has been deployed, the striking design and character of the messages, and the number of target audiences that have been reached further contributed to the success of the campaign,” said Ms Loader,

The campaign also received a merit award from the International Association for Business Communication (IABC). The award will be presented on 15 June 2015 in San Francisco, USA.

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