26 Feb 2017

The city of Francistown is hosting, for the first time, this year’s annual Botswana Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) skills fair and career clinics, previously known as Botswana Tertiary Education Fair.

Addressing a press conference recently, HRDC chief executive officer, Dr Raphael Dingalo said the fair which started on Friday (February 24) would run until March 2 at the Business Botswana Northern Trade Fair grounds.

“We want to improve service delivery and cater for all individuals across the country as the event will be preceded by career clinics in both Francistown and Gaborone,” Dr Dingalo told the media about the logic behind bringing the event to the northern city.

He said the activity was geared towards promoting the education and training sector while reflecting on strategic issues within the education sector such as reaching students as far as Shakawe and Kaudwane.

He added that there would be spin-offs such aspromotion of economic activity in the city in the duration of the event.

Dr Dingalo further told the media that the HRDC skills fair and career clinics provided information to learners using multiple approaches geared towards assisting the learners to make informed career decisions. He explained that events had as their central goal, to create awareness and educatestakeholders and the public on how the fair and the career clinics contributed towards the growth of the education and training sector in Botswana.

He noted that the events brought together various stakeholders, among them, Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA), Botswana Examinations Council (BEC), Department of Tertiary Education Financing (DTEF) and registered education and training institutions as well as government departments.

Student welfare planning manager, Ms Marianyana Selelo said they also wanted to invest on human resource so that graduates could be able to compete globally.

Ms Selelo said the career clinics aimed to empower learners on the information they needed. ENDS