Alert Steel launches graduate partnership

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The programme gives further education training and university graduates with business-related degrees and diplomas the opportunity to complete a 12-month training period with an industry expert.

Alert Steel currently has 25 graduates in its programme and has applied for another 100 graduates, who should be assigned and in the programme by early 2014. The graduates will be exposed to every aspect of the business - from security to cashiering, merchandising, sales, pricing, and management. Alert Steel aims to train its graduates as retail managers and the comprehensive business experience they receive as part of the graduate programme, is an excellent foundation for this.

W&RSETA COO Hennie Zwarts says that companies where graduates have the opportunity to rotate through different business divisions often come away with an enhanced understanding of retail and are well established for managerial roles in future.

Part of solution

Alert Steel is in the process of rolling out a retail store expansion project and aims to fill some of the managerial roles created by the new stores with graduate programme participants. Alert Steel CEO Peter Dodson believes that industry needs to contribute to solving South Africa¹s unemployment challenges and says he is delighted that Alert Steel has been able to partner with a government organisation like the W&RSETA to be part of the solution.

Candidates for the programme are selected nationally, which is a great opportunity for people from different parts of South Africa to gain access to the job market in Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West provinces. All graduates are not guaranteed a job with the company when they complete their training, but Alert Steel will be offering jobs to the best candidates in the programme.

Alert Steel¹s head of human resources, Nadine Thompson, explains that it is often difficult for graduates to find jobs as they don't have practical experience. She says that the graduate programme is a wonderful opportunity for them to gain relevant and comprehensive experience while earning a stipend from W&RSETA.

Training in business area

Thompson is responsible for overseeing the graduates' training at Alert Steel. The programme participants receive theoretical training in a business area, and then spend several weeks or months practically working in that area, depending on the extent of content and know-how that there is to learn in a particular division.

Thousands of graduates pass through the programme each year and the W&RSETA has 70,000 companies registered with them, of which about 11 000 are actively engaged on a yearly basis in the graduate programme. The W&RSETA pays the graduates a basic salary during their training course and the graduates are not obliged to pay anything back for the programme once they have completed the course.