Job portal a dud

Employers have registered many complaints about the shortcomings of the national job portal that will be revised after just five years in existence. The secretary-general of the Namibia Employers' Federation, Tim Parkhouse, told Namibian Sun he has received many complaints from companies that resumes posted on the Namibia Integrated Employment Information System (NIEIS) do not match the job description being advertised. Another complaint raised by employers is that often the resumes do not arrive in time when positions are advertised. “When the bill was being discussed originally, we warned that the evaluation of CVs and the matching to job requirements would be critical to the success of the scheme. It appears at the moment that this is one of the main weaknesses of the scheme,” he said.Parkhouse's comments follow after labour minister Erkki Nghimtina recently announced that the ministry was revising its jobseekers' database to ensure that every job created in the country was registered by the government.Only 3 116 (20%) of the 15 569 jobseekers who were registered on the NIEIS during the 2017/18 financial year found jobs. The system that was launched in 2013 registers jobseekers and not necessarily unemployed persons. The main aim of the system is to help unemployed people find jobs, while making it easier for employers to hire people.Its website shows that the region with the most registered jobseekers is Ohangwena with almost 9 000 registrations, whereas Kavango West has the least with fewer than ten registrations.Nghimtina said the fact more than 12 400 people could not find jobs through the system showed that there were serious structural challenges in a component of the employment creation strategy that was intended to provide fair opportunities to all who sought work and to meet employers' hiring needs. Nghimtina said one of these shortcomings was the absence of compulsory registration by each employer of every job created in the country. According to him it appeared that many employees were not recruited through the system but by word of mouth, personal connections, recommendations by colleagues, or the internet. Other shortcomings were a lack of relevant skills necessary for economic growth, and inadequate attention paid to recognition of prior learning.Parkhouse says it is difficult to comment on the figures released by the minister without knowing how many applicants are unskilled and how many are skilled and qualified. According to Parkhouse another weakness in the statistics is that there is no indication of how many of the registered jobseekers are unemployed and how many are just looking for other jobs.The main aim of the scheme was to establish what the Namibian labour market consists of, he says. “We do not know what we have, what we need, or in truth how many non-Namibians are employed. Therefore, we support the minister's call that employers should use the system.”With regard to the minister's remarks on compulsory reporting by employers, Parkhouse says: “Well, the law is there and it is therefore 'compulsory' for employers to comply. If he is suggesting penalties, then we would not support that at all.“It is a requirement of our members that they should comply with all legislation. We may not like a law but if it is law our members must obey.”He added the federation supports the process of streamlining the system and making it more effective, and will assist where they can. ELLANIE SMIT

Job portal a dud

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-19

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Job portal a dud

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-19

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