Department of Labour unveils state of the art bus to register and facilitate placement of job seekers

The Department of Labour plans to procure a set of buses that will roam the country to register job seekers, part of a campaign to ramp up and keep an up-to-date national data of job seekers.

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant said in the venture, the Department of Labour (DoL) would seek to work closely with other departments, State-owned enterprises and the private sector to analyse the profile of registered job seekers, so as to help place job seekers in suitable job opportunities.

Oliphant was speaking during the unveiling of the DoL’s Public Employment Services (PES) branded bus and opening of the inaugural Job Fair held at International Convention Centre in East London.

The bus is manned by four trained personnel and state of the art equipment and technology that are used to help register job seekers. The bus would relieve the pressure experienced at Labour Centres and help bring service closer to the people.

“The launch today is not just a talk shop. Some of the projects to deliver on job creation including infrastructure projects were already in implementation phase,” Oliphant said that the soon-to-be tabled Public Employment Services Bill will also go a long way to propel the PES work.

DoL deputy director-general of PES Sam Morotoba said the bus would spend the next 10 days in the province to help develop an electronic register of the job seekers in Eastern Cape. Morotoba said the intention in the medium and long-term was to procure more buses, with a bus operating in each province.

Morotoba said the intention of PES was not only to register job seekers and profile them, but the goal was securing placement and long-term job opportunities for job seekers.

Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel said in his address at the Eastern Cape Job Summit that coincided with the launch of the Job Fair, that South Africa was on the verge of developing 17 strategic economic nodes across the country and these would require a labour force to become a reality.

Patel said the Eastern Cape had a range of opportunities in irrigation schemes, agriculture and a range of manufacturing including the construction of the new Umzimvubu Dam, the N2/wildcoast highway and a smelter at Coega.

For more information contact:
Vuyokazi Mbanjwa
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