Angola’s Ministry of Public Administration, Employment and Social Security (MAPESS) hosted a job fair in August in the southern Huila province.

The objectives of the fair, the first of its kind in Huila, were to attract companies interested in hiring new workers and to provide opportunities for the creation of micro-enterprises. The event was also intended to promote small-scale income generating activities, place recent graduates in the job market, and explain current labor law, employment and training opportunities.

November 2005

London Careers Event brings African professionals seeking careers in Africa with over 25 African national and multinational companies.

Finding effective methods to bring Africans outside Africa into contact with employers within Africa is critical to addressing the technical and managerial skills shortages facing African countries.

While traditional recruitment specialists and consultants offer a useful service, an increasingly successful approach has been through the use of recruitment events designed to bring national and international companies in Africa together with African graduates and professionals living outside the continent.

A recent recruitment event held in London by Careers in Africa attracted over 6,500 applicants with more than 500 African graduates and professionals seeking careers in Africa with multinational corporations, intergovernmental organisations and leading African companies attending the event.

Careers in Africa has been running its international recruitment events for three years, and the number of African companies that participate has increased from 11 companies in the first year to 27 companies at the April 2005 event.  According to its Managing Director, Rupert Adcock, the company has placed almost 2,000 professionals into Africa in recent years. 

To be considered for the Careers in Africa events, successful candidates must have an excellent academic track record (to at least undergraduate degree level), fluency in English, French or Portuguese, outstanding intellectual and interpersonal skills and work authorisation for at least one African country.

Adcock’s passion for Africa stems from his involvement in ‘Windows on Work’, a 1997 initiative helping exiled South Africans find a career path back to the new South Africa.  This was followed by ‘African Managers’, a pan-African recruitment initiative for graduates in Europe looking for careers across Africa.  Today the UK-based company which, in addition to its British management, is staffed by nationals of South Africa, Kenya, Angola, Tanzania and Benin, is developing pan-African recruitment initiatives for Africans across 39 countries on the Continent.

“We are hoping to place over 500 people as a result of the Careers event,” says Adcock. 

For someone who has helped to facilitate more than 1500 careers across the African continent over the past eight years, this seems eminently achievable.

Ghanaian Returnee tackles the Challenge of Changing Ghana’s Recruitment Culture

When Kwame Ofori-Kuragu returned to Ghana from the UK in 2006, the 35-year old Project Management graduate took with him an idea that had long been in the planning.  Frustrated by the recruitment practices he has observed in his home country, Ofori-Kuragau intends to hold a series of job fairs as a springboard to a new kind of recruitment agency designed to offer employers in Ghana access to both choice and quality.

In 1998, inspired by requests from the fellow Ghanaians he met while studying in the UK, Ofori-Kuragu established Leaders for Tomorrow.  The organisation aims at mobilising and helping to develop the human, financial and infrastructure resources that are critical to Ghana’s development.  Citing the organisation’s mission as “to promote a culture of excellence in the Ghanaian business community and to provide World Class Human Resource and Management Consulting Services”, Ofori-Kuragu now intends to provide a service placing graduates into internship and work placements as well as to source permanent jobs for young Ghanaians, both in Ghana and in the Diaspora. 

The organisation’s first venture in this area will be to hold a Job Fair for graduates at the Ghanaian University of Science and Technology, located in Ghana’s second city, Kumasi.

Speaking to ReConnect Africa, Ofori-Kuragau explains, “We are planning three job fairs; in Kumasi, at the University of Ghana and at the University of Cape Coast.  We want to create a platform for some of the best employers to interact with some of the best candidates entering the job market in the year to come.” 

Ofori-Kuragu sees the job fairs as a means for students to find out about job opportunities and halting the flow of educated young people leaving the country.  “The lack of information and access to employment impacts to a large extent on the brain drain in Ghana”, he says.  “If people don’t get jobs straight after school or university, they are tempted to travel.” 

Compounding a lack of access to available job opportunities is the widespread practice of nepotism.  In his view, the reliance of many companies on recruiting extended family members or through social contacts often results in poor and biased job hiring decisions by employers.

“One of our key challenges is to break the traditional approach to recruitment in Ghana – putting an ad in a paper or taking people on through word of mouth,” he says.  “We also need to change the tradition of nepotism when, if you don’t know someone, you aren’t likely to get the job.  We want to break the current culture of recruitment by showing them a different way to recruit and by presenting real opportunities for them.  The job fair provides a one-stop shop and saves companies launching their own fairs or paying for costly recruitment.”

Ofori-Kuragu concedes that job applicants also need to change their attitude and his discussions with employers in Ghana have highlighted the fact that many graduates lack the key competencies employers need.  Job applicants are often unable to demonstrate communication, teamwork, analytical, strategic and leadership skills, while employers cite a lack of commercial awareness and personal drive in many young graduates who apply for jobs.

Ofori-Kuragu and his team are planning a series of workshops and seminars for job fair participants to help develop these skills and to better prepare them for today’s job market. “As a means to add value and to better meet the needs of industry and the companies we hope will participate, we will hold the first series of workshops in the third week of August.  These will put participants in better stead with potential employers and help to distinguish them from other entrants into the job market.”

Ofori-Kuragu believes that greater objectivity in identifying talent will ultimately benefit employers and their businesses.  “On the employers’ side, we believe that this approach will present a bigger pool of talent to fish out the best candidates.  If you just employ those who approach you directly, you don’t know what else is out there.”

The Job Fair will also be an opportunity for students to learn first-hand the requirements of some of the best employers in Ghana.  The two day events will be held on the various university campuses. “We will be inviting students from the universities, especially all the final year students” says Ofori-Kuragu.  “Because it is happening on campus and run in partnership with the student bodies and university authorities, we will have a good pipeline of students.”

Linking the Job Fair to Ghanaians living outside the country is critical to Leaders for Tomorrow’s vision.

“We want to present a window for people abroad who can’t be at the Fair and want to return home.  We are looking at ways to attract the resumes of Ghanaians abroad that are looking for opportunities to re-settle and work in Ghana.  We want Ghanaians abroad to contact us and register with us so that we can put their needs forward.  Students on campus in Ghana do not need to register but should bring their CVs to the fair.  Companies working in Ghana can register to participate or express their interest in students and we will be providing space on site for interviews during the fair.”

For further information about the forthcoming job fairs, contact Kwame Ofori-Kuragu on: info@leaders-of-tomorrow-inc.com