Africa-Press – Namibia. FIRSTRAND Namibia Group on Tuesday launched an internship programme, bridging the gap between many Namibian graduates without work and professional mentorship.
This, according to the company, is in line with its broader Namibian talent development drive. The programme, called FirstJob, will focus on kick-starting careers to change lives, and will come with a 12-month internship contract for unemployed graduates.
The programme will give unemployed graduates the opportunity to develop workplace confidence and competence through contributing their learning and perspectives to business objectives and deliverables within RMB and FNB Namibia.
“The opportunities for young, qualified graduates are extremely limited, especially when companies keep turning them down if they don’t have experience. The lack of opportunities for graduates in Namibia has negatively impacted life-long earning ability, economic growth, and social cohesion, and exacerbates an increasing pension and healthcare funding gap,” said Conrad Dempsey, the chief executive officer of FirstRand.
FirstRand is expected to spend N$3 million over the next year to fully engage the final 20 participants in the first pilot year of the project. Presidential youth adviser Daisry Mathias at the launch said the government is also looking at curriculum reform and establishing a stronger partnership between industries and institutions of higher learning.
She said finding practical solutions remains the state’s focus. “The solutions are better education, work-integrated learning, and transitioning from training to labour, while the solutions are enterprise development, job creation, and entrepreneurship,” she said.
Mathias applauded FirstRand Namibia on the work-integrated learning programme for graduates, which is aligned to one of the numerous initiatives the government is driving to absorb the many trained, talented, and capable young people into the formal labour market.
Isdor Angula, the chief human resources officer of FirstRand Namibia, says identifying, assisting, and advancing the careers of fellow Namibians has always been part of the FirstRand Namibia strategy.
“Through the group’s franchises and brands, FNB Namibia, RMB, Ashburton, and WesBank, we have always endeavoured to implement best-practice talent management programmes to identify, develop, select, and advance a diverse talent pool – a talent pool fit to execute group strategy driven by the desire to help build a globally competitive Namibia,” he said.
Wiann Mans, the learning and development manager at FirstRand Namibia, says: “Applications to be part of the pilot’s first-year intake of 20 interns to the FirstJob programme are open to all unemployed, degreed Namibians between the ages of 18 and 31 in the fields of finance, business, process engineering, project management, data sciences/applied mathematics, marketing, political sciences, economics, banking, robotics, law, and compliance risk management.”
Applications are open until 6 December to start at either RMB or FNB Namibia in January 2022. The call for applications will be advertised on social and other media.
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