The Department has committed itself to creating opportunities for the youth of South Africa to gain workplace experience in various career fields through its learnerships and internship programmes.
This emerged as the country marks 45 years of the 16 June 1976 Soweto Uprising which is known as Youth Day.
26–year–old Abigail Mogale, tells the story of how the Gauteng Department of Social Development gave her an opportunity to pursue a career as a professional in supply chain management.
Mogale holds a BTech degree Logistics Management. I started at the department as a supply chain intern in 2019. I was later appointed to a permanent position as a supply chain clerk, which is my current position. I would like to thank the Human Resource Development Management Directorate, recruitment team, for being efficient and reasonable.
I applied for both these positions like everyone else.
Despite having other job offers at the time of the internship recruitment process, "I decided to take the department's offer as I wanted to learn more about the public sector. I do not regret this choice as my internship was fruitful it provided me with multiple training programmes and continuous support from my supervisor and colleagues".
Her internship started in 2019 and continued in 2020, under Covid-19 conditions. Facing the challenges of the pandemic, which include rotational work schedules, working from home, restrictions on the movements of people, and restrictions on economic activities.
Mogale is pleased with how her unit was able to adapt to these conditions mostly by digitising their tasks and by putting the health and safety of their staff first. She is also pleased that despite these challenges the department could still hire a new group of interns and give her a new permanent position.
The aspiring MTech student recognizes the challenges young people in South Africa face, especially when trying to enter the job market. She encourages young people to take stock of opportunities for youth at the department and in other government departments, and states that these programmes are worth it.
Furthermore, she challenges the youth to continue to craft, refine and diversify their skills and talents as these will make them valuable assets to the job market.
"Don't give up, work hard, and try to prove yourself as an asset…Knock on all those doors", she concluded.