Job-matchmaker graduates from moms to … graduates

South African businesses have a new platform to recruit skilled graduates, interns, and apprentices in a simple, low-cost format. The system cut its teeth recruiting women who needed skilled employment with the flexibility demanded of managing a family.

RecruitAGraduate.co.za is a new online recruitment platform from the award-winning creator of RecruitMyMom.co.za. The new platform aims to pair young graduates, interns, and apprentices who have graduated from reputable higher learning institutions in the past five years, or those who need work experience to complete their qualifications, with businesses and entrepreneurs looking for the energy and skills that young recruits can offer.

Recruitagraduate.co.za completed a successful trial phase in March 2019 and opened its doors for job listings and professional recruitment in April.

“Modern recruitment practices and mega online job portals are valuable tools for mainstream job placements, but its brute force approach can be inefficient for smaller businesses and first-time job seekers,” says Phillipa Geard, founder of RecruitAGraduate.

It is in this fertile space that RecruitAGraduate will offer its range of services. On the one hand it will assist businesses which want to employ young talent but cannot afford expensive, graduate recruitment campaigns, and which equally cannot risk a wrong placement.

On the other hand, it will exclusively help new academic and vocational graduates who need to find meaningful work and position themselves for a successful career amid the noise and seemingly insurmountable obstacles they face in the current South African job market.

RecruitAGraduate will use a similar model to that of its sister platform, RecruitMyMom.

RecruitMyMom focuses on skilled, flexible and part-time placements for women wanting to integrate their careers and family commitments. This platform was created by Geard in 2012 and won her the title of Job Creator of the Year at the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

Geard said: “At RecruitAGraduate, prospective employers can choose from a self-service option, with a small listing fee, or an affordable, professional recruitment service, where one of our team members will help them find and place the right candidate. For the latter, payment is only made when we make a successful placement, and we offer a three-month warranty.

“At the same time, we help graduates by exclusively focusing on them. Our platform is geared to present graduates, interns and apprentices in the best possible light through our online help and CV template service.” 

By offering an easy-to-use platform with low fees and a targeted approach, RecruitAGraduate will help forward-thinking businesses invest in hiring graduates, interns, and apprentices, addressing one of the challenges of youth unemployment in South Africa, which is the highest in the world. Graduate youth employment integrates with existing governmental tax and B-BBEE incentives and dovetails with foundational programmes such as Youth Employment Services (YES)