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#YouthMonth: UFS Career Hub to increase graduate employability

01 June 2023 | Story Belinda Janeke | Photo Kaleidoscope

Opinion article by Belinda Janeke, Head of Career Services in the Division of Student Affairs at the University of the Free State.

More than half of the youth in South Africa are unemployed. Although a tertiary qualification increases your chances of finding a job, a staggering 32,6% of graduates are still unemployed. This is unacceptably high. As universities, it is our duty to help decrease the graduate unemployment rate by producing highly employable graduates.

Employability is one of the key drivers in the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Vision 130. As an institution of higher learning, we have always supported employability and ensured that our students are skilled according to industry standards. UFS Career Services is known for cultivating relationships between the industry and students, and many successful applicants have completed our programmes before stepping into the job market.

Coming soon: Virtual Career Hub

This year, the Career Services Office is looking forward to technological developments in the field of career readiness. The virtual Career Hub will be a space where students and employers can make initial contact and where students can grow their employability by tracking their skills completion.

Continuous job placements

In the meantime, our newly appointed placement officers in UFS Career Services are being trained to assist students with job placements. We help students to compile a professional CV tailored to market requirements, a convincing cover letter, and a LinkedIn page that gets noticed. To make sure that students are fully prepared and confident, we also offer interview coaching and career plan development.

We have already achieved much success with our employability support and look forward to the data that will be generated by the Career Hub. All students (from first year to postgraduates) are encouraged to connect with UFS Career Services to help increase their employability. Let your degree work for you by making sure that you are work ready.

News Archive

Community engagement must be a core function of universities

2009-05-21

Members of the NatCEMF Steering Committee are, from the left: Mr Jerome Slamat, Senior Director: Community Interaction, Stellenbosch University, Ms Beatrix Bouwman, Manager: Community Engagement, North-West University, Rev Kiepie Jaftha, Chief Director: Community Service, UFS and chairperson of the committee, Prof. Allan Femi Lana, Director: Institute for Rural Development and Community Engagement, Mangosuthu University of Technology, Prof. Seth Pollack, Fulbright Scholar, University of Western Cape (guest speaker at the meeting), Prof. Denver Hendricks, Director: Community Engagement, University of Pretoria, and Prof. Priscilla Daniels, Chairperson: Human Ecology and Research and CHESP Research Coordinator, University of the Western Cape.
Photo: Lacea Loader

It is important that all tertiary institutions in South Africa should work together and commit themselves to advance the cause of community engagement in the country.

This was one of the main outcomes of the second meeting held by the National Community Engagement Manager’s Forum (NatCEMF) at the South Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein recently. The meeting was attended by 34 representatives of 16 higher education institutions in the country.

“I am astounded at the interest in this matter. The representatives are committed to make community engagement a core function of their institutions and we all agreed that we should get more involved in expanding this across all institutions. A need for a formal structure for us all to work together and have a more collective voice was also identified,” said Rev Kiepie Jaftha, Chief Director: Community Service at the UFS and Chairperson of the NatCEMF Steering Committee.

“There is a growing need to expand and develop our engagement with communities – to share our experiences and best practices and to learn from each other. There are universities that are doing excellent work in this field and, by having a formal structure, we can do a lot more towards advancing community engagement,” said Rev Jaftha.

The meeting identified matters such as the coordination of higher education institutions’ involvement in community engagement, the facilitation of research about community engagement, promoting service learning as transformation, the establishment of a community engagement resource centre and the organisation of a national community engagement conference as some of its aims. A national steering committee was also elected.

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