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The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is partnering with Masawara and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) to provide recent university graduates with work experience and full-time employment through its new Class – 2 – Career job placement programme. Class-2-Career (C2C) is an 8-month career development programme targeting young, talented Zimbabwean nationals under the age of 27 who are completing, or have recently completed studies (from 2020 onwards) in: Industrial or Applied Mathematics; Actuarial Science; Operations Research Statistics; Consumer and Retail Science; Digital Marketing; Financial Engineering; Production Engineering; Economics, and/or Informatics.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), formal employment opportunities in Zimbabwe have declined by 30% since 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic. This has caused a further decline in postgraduate job placements for students in a country with a persistently high youth unemployment rate.
Anne Madzara, Team Leader of the UNDP Zimbabwe Poverty Reduction, Environment, and Climate Change Unit, highlighted the importance of the initiative, “Investing in women and youth is a pre-condition to achieving the 2030 agenda, and they should be at the centre of development programming as a catalyst for transformative change. C2C is a powerful combination of private sector strengths in job creation and UNDP Zimbabwe’s thought leadership in youth empowerment. By providing young people with the opportunity to gain practical work experience, we are bridging the skills gap whilst leading them into a meaningful career path.”
From Masawara, Constantine Nyanzero, Head of Innovation had this to say about the initiative, “We have partnered with UNDP to build a Fellowship program that will attract the next generation of leaders to our ambitious Group. Our goal is to give the youth early experience through rotations in our different companies, to give them global exposure, networks, and the perspectives needed to kick-start their career. From induction, they will work on real projects and learn about running and transforming one of Zimbabwe’s most successful conglomerates.’’
As the private sector partner, Masawara will help reduce youth unemployment by recruiting 26 graduates to take part in the C2C development programme and provide at least 80% of the participants with full-time employment at the end of the initiative. The selected graduates will be placed in the Masawara financial services cluster. In addition to on-the-job training, each trainee will be provided with a Personal Development Officer and an Industry Mentor who will help the graduates navigate the concepts and challenges of the working world.
Selection of the graduates will be done with support from the UNV through their recruitment platform.
Through the C2C programme, the UNDP, Masawara, and UNV are hoping to build a strong network of young talented Zimbabweans who are ready to take on business leadership roles.
Details for the application process and requirements can be found here
Deadline for applications is June 17, 2021
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Youth Connekt Zimbabwe is the UNDP’s flagship youth empowerment programme which is part of UNDP’s Youth Connekt Africa initiative. It is being implemented through a partnership which is led by the Ministry of Youth Arts and Recreation (MoYSAR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Zimbabwe.
Masawara is a leading investment firm with a strong and diverse portfolio in insurance, hospitality, IT (Information Technology) and property in Southern Africa.
The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. It works with partners to integrate qualified, highly motivated and well supported UN Volunteers into development programming and promote the value and global recognition of volunteerism. UNV is administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and reports to the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board