CHANGING TIMES CALL FOR STRENGTHENED ENGAGEMENT WITH INSTITUTIONS

There is an opportunity for institutions of higher learning to tweak curriculums in line with changing workplace practices and the digital era. Incoming General Manager of People Management at Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) Caroline Mayeza has begun engaging universities in port cities for meaningful dialogue that will ensure the company’s expansion plans and projected growth result in a greater absorption of competent youth.

“While the rate of youth unemployment remains high, it isn’t without effort from big business. However, we find ourselves at a time where we have to stretch ourselves, unpack our businesses for better understanding and for institutions to take into consideration business models of the next five to ten years and beyond,” said Mayeza. She added that big business owed it to institutions to share their medium to long-term plans and underpinning strategies, for students to have a better grasp of the workplace much earlier on, and for institutions to tweak where they can to ensure relevance.

TPT is one of Transnet’s five operating divisions and in the 2020/2021 financial year that ended in March, youth spend at TPT alone totalled R35.1 million. The technical discipline had an enrolment of 138 apprentices, engineers and technicians in training. Non-technical programs saw an enrolment of 86 youth in the form of learnerships, experiential learning and young professionals in training across the functional units of safety, health and wellness, finance, supply chain management, information communication technology, human resources, national planning, capital projects, corporate affairs, energy, fleet and facilities, sales and new business development.

According to Mayeza, succession planning is critical to the business and annually, there are dedicated programs to ensure the development of youth employees. More than 16 youth employees were enrolled in accelerated development and structured leadership programmes last year. These programmes have yielded positive results and career growth for a number of candidates. TPT also awarded 172 bursaries to youth employees in the same period, resulting in 47% of all bursaries awarded to youth. “Youth representation at TPT reflects country stats, with the youth making up about 34 % of the total TPT population. And it’s important that we impart as much knowledge as we can in structured programs, remembering to ensure women representation as well” said Mayeza.

TPT