New portal for graduate professional vacancies

© scyther5 – 123RF.com

Rama Govenden, Executive: HR at PPS says that the vacancies can be in the form of internships, learnerships, graduate programmes or entry-level jobs. "The Professionals Connect career portal aims to provide graduates with career advice and to assist in connecting them with employment opportunities at various companies, within the private or public sector."

It is a simple process to register as a job provider on the portal and vacancies can be posted in a personal capacity or with an organisation. "Job providers are also encouraged to post content that will be relevant to young professionals. The initiative is not designed as a commercial venture, therefore there are no costs involved for job providers to post content."

Young professionals are increasingly using the internet, social media and online sites as their main source of information when looking for a job. Statistics by The Real Time Report revealed that five out of every six millennials claim that they connect with companies through social media and other online networks.

Avoiding the brain drain

Responding to this shift, PPS created the online portal to assist newly graduated professionals in their efforts of finding employment. "These individuals are in many ways the driving force behind the development of the economy. It is vital that young professionals are placed into jobs as soon as possible after graduation to ensure they do not begin seeking employment overseas, thereby resulting in the loss of further skills in the country."

The recent PPS Student Confidence Index revealed that 58% of the student respondents plan to stay in the country for work purposes once they have obtained their degree. However, he notes that a lack of viable employment opportunities could encourage recent graduates to look beyond South Africa's borders.

The portal offers a wide range of job opportunities and career guidance that exclusively caters for graduate professionals. "The website provides both graduates and professionals with a user-friendly and secure interface for the purpose of networking, career guidance and finding potential jobs or candidates, all within the graduate professional space."

Through the collaboration of professional networks such as universities, companies, recruitment agencies, PPS members and professional associations, the portal will be able to offer a wide range of job and career opportunities exclusively to graduates who visit the portal.

For more information, go to www.professionalsconnect.co.za.