Rectron says internship and learnership programmes are crucial to South Africa’s effort to combat unemployment.
The company notes that according to Stats SA, as of the end of February 2023, the country’s unemployment rate is 32.7%, one of the highest globally.
“While this figure may have dropped slightly in recent months, there is still a high unemployment rate among the youth. According to Stats SA, 43.4% of people between the ages of 15 and 34 are unemployed – a concerning amount given that this age range makes up more than half of the country’s employable workforce,” the company adds.
According to André Witbooi, learning & development manager at Rectron, the company's development programmes are aimed at addressing ICT sector scarce skills.
Lebogang Dire, talent acquisition specialist at Rectron, says the company's internship programme focuses on developing people from previously disadvantaged communities, aiming to "equip school leavers with the necessary skills to have a career and earn a living for themselves and provide for their families.”
According to Lebogang the programme is intended to absorb all of the interns into Rectron’s business as full time employees at the end of the year-long internship. Since the initiative was started in 2022, Rectron has been able to offer permanent positions to all its interns across its different departments including IT and technical solutions, finance, HR, logistics and supply chain management, she says.
Much needed breakthough
For Mpho Molete, 26, becoming a Rectron intern as a graduate was the opportunity he needed to enter the formal employment space.
“Before joining the programme, I was actively in the job market, searching for learnerships, internships, any entry-level positions. I even took a chance and applied for some managerial positions,” says Molete. “By the time I saw the Rectron Internship advertisement, I had applied to 60-something different roles and jobs.”
While on LinkedIn one day, Molete saw Rectron was looking for a human resources (HR) graduate and sent off his CV. Two weeks later, he went through a couple of screening questions on the phone before he was invited to two more rounds of interviews. Molete was then offered a spot on Rectron’s 12-month internship programme with 11 other graduates and joined the HR department as an intern.
During his first year at Rectron, Molete was exposed to the different job functions within HR including recruitment, learning and development, payroll, and health and safety.
“My experience as an intern was amazing,” says Molete. He believes the Rectron Internship Programme prepared him for the more challenging transition to permanent employment ithrough not only exposing him to the different HR job functions, but also letting him pick up important soft skills such as time management, communication, and goal setting."
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