Makgoe made this plea as Vodacom announced that 100 of the 500 college graduates that will be placed in 12-month internships at the mobile operators’ branches across South Africa, will come from the Free State and Northern Cape. Mechatronics is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering, which combines a fundamental background in mechanical engineering with light-current electrical engineering. Makgoe says he was first made aware of mechatronic engineering around 2012/13 during his travels to Turkey whereupon officials queried the lack of interest by South Africans in that area. He says it was thereafter that the department made a conscious effort to fund studies in this field at varied institutions in South Africa, Turkey and China. Makgoe put a proposal on the table during the briefing regarding hiring graduates.

“We are prepared to pay the salaries for these kids or appoint them in the Department of Education. Maybe five or so who have studied mechatronics... as long as the private sector can deploy them for 12-month workplace training. The details can be worked around,” says Makgoe. He says the Covid-19 pandemic has expedited the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4 IR) and is forcing everyone to embrace new technologies.

Vodacom and the Wholesale and Retail Sector Education and Training Authority (W&RSETA) are working alongside one another to recruit graduates from the Central University of Technology, the University of Fort Hare, eThekwini, Eastcape Midlands, and Port Elizabeth colleges, as well as Letaba, Ingwe, and Buffalo City TVET colleges for work placements.

This is to curb South Africa’s soaring unemployment rate which now sits at 32,6% - the highest since Stats SA began the survey in 2008. The expanded unemployment rate is now 42,6%. The expanded unemployment rate takes into consideration discouraged work-seekers, those who have given up on gaining employment. The Covid-19 pandemic has been said to have contributed to the rising number of discouraged work-seekers. Vodacom says it does not see its placement programme as a silver bullet to South Africa’s unemployment woes but believes that it’s just a step in the right direction.

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