Home Fleetwatch 2014 Appeal to trucking to help ease youth unemployment

Appeal to trucking to help ease youth unemployment

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A sign of the times but according to Bev Campling of Bion Future Focus, the trucking industry can help pave the way towards a better future for South Africa’s youth.

South Africa has the third highest unemployment rate in the world for people between the ages of 15 to 24. This is according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risk 2014 report.

The introduction of the Youth Wage subsidy can go a long way to making a positive impact on youth unemployment and the trucking industry, along with SMME’s and entrepreneurs can make a major contribution.

So says youth employment campaigner, Bev Campling of Bion Search & Selection, who reckons trucking companies can benefit by harnessing the energy and skills of the youth to make a difference in their organisations. “There are many talented young matriculants and graduates out there just bursting for an opportunity to gain entry to the job market,” she says.

In order to assist companies in the transport industry, Bion Search and Selection has launched a not-for-profit match-making service called Bion Future Focus that helps companies find and employ suitable young school-leavers and graduates for any junior posts required within an organisation.

The value of Bion Future Focus is that it offers trucking companies a professional recruitment service at marginal cost and offers first time job seekers a central point for application as well as mentoring while they ease into the job market. 

Employers making use of the service need to provide a detailed job description for their vacancies. In turn, the company will provide them with three screened CVs for each vacancy. Once a candidate is selected, the Bion forwards verified ID documents, Matric qualifications (if applicable) and references of any previous employment.

“It is every business leader’s responsibility to provide our youth with jobs and pave their way to a brighter future if we are to avoid a social and economic catastrophe in future,” says Campling.

Bev Campling – looking to help reduce youth unemployment.“Government has provided us with a means of accessing funding to employ bright young stars of the future and we therefore appeal to businesses of all shapes and sizes to reach out to our youth. All we need to do is take the time to find areas of our businesses that need to be energised and match the right skills required for them to do the job.”

Since its inception last year, Bion Future Focus has been responsible for placing many matriculants and graduates into full-time and part-time employment. Furthermore, they have assisted a large number of graduates seeking learnerships in the trucking and transport industries to make contact with companies and benefit through any programs being run by them.