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Talented UFS students attract potential employers to career fairs

16 March 2023 | Story Lunga Luthuli | Photo Sonia Small

UFS Career Fair — University of the Free State students listening attentively and taking tips to help them navigate growth in their chosen careers during the Career Fair held in the Callie Human Hall on the Bloemfontein Campus.

For the first time since 2020, we saw the return of in-person career fairs to the University of the Free State (UFS). The fair was presented in the Callie Human Hall on the Bloemfontein Campus for companies looking to recruit university talent and selling themselves to top institutional talent on offer.

During the career fair, Career Services invites companies to interact and share information with students without the added pressure of an actual application, interview, and recruitment process.

Belinda Janeke, Head: Career Services in the Division of Student Affairs, said: “Companies jump at the opportunity to sell themselves to top talent, and are always eager to share information with students and to answer burning questions about position requirements and prospects.”

Janeke said the first of four career fairs planned for the year emphasised local opportunities and talent. The Career Services Office encourages students to explore the excellent career opportunities available in South Africa and the Free State and promotes local talent to potential employers.

All the sessions presented at the UFS Career Fair are recorded for on-demand viewing on the UFS website. The career weeks are hybrid events, with the option to attend online or in person. Janeke said Career Services also visits the Qwaqwa Campus every semester for face-to-face engagements with students.

“Career fairs are common practice for educational institutions globally, and during the COVID-19 lockdown, such events were not possible. We are excited to be hosting a physical fair again, and this made us realise that students have a need to meet potential employers in a physical setting to ask questions that may not always be appropriate for discussion in an interview,” added Janeke.

Janeke said students can look forward to the SAGEA Virtual GradExpo in May, July, and August and the AgriCareerConnect, which usually generates a lot of interest among students. Janeke said, “This year’s AgriCareerConnect will focus on animal science, horticulture and crop sciences, and integrated disciplines.”

Other career week and career fair dates to look forward to include:

Faculty of Law: Career Week 22 March-24 March 2023 and Career Fair on 23 March 2023

Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: Career Week 2 May-5 May 2023 and Career Fair on 4 May 2023

Faculty of Education: Career Fair on 24 July 2023

Faculty of the Humanities: Career Week 31 July-4 August and General Career Fair on 3 August 2023

Faculty of Theology and Religion: Career Fair on 16 August 2023

Pictured second and third from the right are Career Service’s Yolisa Xatasi, Administrative Assistant, and Nobesuthu Sonti, Senior Student Relations Officer, in a jovial mood with career ambassadors – a reminder of the value of face-to-face gatherings after the Career Fair has been hosted virtually for the past two years.
(Photo: Sonia Small)

News Archive

Multi-disciplinary research approach at UFS

2005-10-25

UFS follows multi-disciplinary research approach with opening of new centre

“A new way of doing business in necessary in the research and teaching of agriculture and natural sciences in South Africa. We must move away from departmentalised research infrastructures and a multi-disciplinary approach to research involving several disciplines must be adapted,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Prof van Schalkwyk delivered the keynote address during the launch of the Centre for Plant Health Management (CePHMa) at the Main Campus in Bloemfontein today (21 October 2005). CePHMa is an initiative of the UFS Department of Plant Sciences.

According to Prof van Schalkwyk a tertiary institution must practice multi-disciplinary research to be a world-class research institution. “It is difficult for researchers to admit that they do not know a lot about each other’s area of speciality. It is therefore necessary for researchers to make a paradigm shift and to focus on inter-disciplinary co-operation. To do this, we must encourage them to work together and to find a common language to communicate ideas en establish symbiotic relationships,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

“We tend to think that research is better and faster if it is specialised. This is not true. The new generation of scientists are young and they are trained to form a concept of the total system and not to focus on a specific area of speciality. At the UFS we encourage this approach to research. This was one of the main reasons for the establishment of CePHMa,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.
CePHMa is the only centre of its kind in Africa and is established to extend the expertise in plant health management in South Africa and in Africa, to train experts in plant health and to conduct multi-disciplinary research about the health of agricultural crops.

“CePHMa is a virtual centre comprising of ten disciplines applicable to crop production and crop protection,” said Prof Wijnand Swart, Chairperson of CePHMa during the opening ceremony.

“The UFS is the leading institution in Africa in terms of news crop development and manages three research programmes that concentrate on new crops, i.e. the New Crop Pathology Programme, the New Crop Development Programme and the Insects on New Crops Programme. Other applied research programmes that are unique to the UFS are genetic resistance to rust diseases of small grain crops and sustainable integrated disease management of field crops,” said Prof Swart.

“Because the expected growth in population will be 80% in 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa, the future demands of food produce in Africa will be influenced. Therefore research will in future be focused on ways to improve food security by employing agricultural systems that are economically viable and environmentally sound,” said Prof Swart.

“Thorough knowledge of the concept of holistic plant health management is crucial to meet the challenge and it is therefore imperative that innovative crop protection and crop production strategies, with particular emphasis on plant health, be adopted. This is why the Department of Plant Sciences initiated the establishment of CePHMA,” he said.

According to Prof Swart there is a shortage of expertise in plant health management. “The UFS has shown the potential to address the demand of the sub-continent of Africa regarding expertise training and CePHMa is the leader in southern Africa to provide in this need,” he said.

The appropriateness and quality of training in plant health management is reflected in the fact that students from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Cameroon, Angola, Mozambique and Lesotho have already been trained or are in the process of being trained in at the UFS.

Scientists from CePHMa have forged partnerships with numerous national and international institutions including the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), various community trusts, seed, pesticide and agricultural chemical companies, in addition to overseas universities.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
21 October 2005

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