Mail & Guardian reporter
Job-seeking graduates tempted to put a “willing to do anything legal for cash” ad in the classifieds, take heart: the Mail & Guardian graduate recruitment fair will make sure your expensive education takes you further than waiting tables.
The fair, to be held at Cape Town’s Good Hope Centre from August 27 to 29, targets final-year students or those who have graduated in the last five years. It follows the international trend of collecting together in one place a number of potential employers and organisations that offer career opportunities.
The fair will run alongside the Job Scene – World of Work exhibition, which drew more than 32 000 people in Cape Town last year.
Exhibitors range from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants to the International Academy of Health and Skincare. Among the more exotic stalls are the Burlingame Equidation Centre, which can show you how to become a horse trainer or get a job on a stud farm. Big names like The Airports Company, Woolworths, Van Zyl & Pritchard and First National Bank are also represented.
Those with a yen for foreign experience can talk to the many international organisations represented. The British Council has provided many South Africans with study opportunities in Britain, while Camp Counsellors USA can give you a chance to be a part of that great American institution, the summer camp.
The Asian Institute of Technology, based in Bangkok, is also represented. It offers postgraduate programmes in 40 fields of study, as well as internships and exchange programmes through its partner universities in Asia and Europe.
Many local universities and training institutions will be punting their postgraduate courses and information technology courses abound.
Two more M&G graduate recruitment fairs are planned, one for Durban and one for Johannesburg, both in February.