29 May 2017

Jongman’s Community and Youth Intervention Services managing director, Mr Kgomotso Jongman, has challenged Batswana to explore employment  opportunities outside Botswana.

Mr Jongman said this while delivering welcome remarks at a seminar held under the theme, "Thinking Beyond Borders" recently.

He advised participants to identify their passion and strengths as they could use them to conquer the world.

“Set goals and start the journey towards your personal development, and tha means you have to benchmark from those who did this before you, which calls for networking,” he said.

Outlining the objectives of the seminar, Mr Jongman said, it seeks to stimulate and challenge the comfort zone mentality of a lot of people who are not willing to attempt any risk-taking ventures.

He said although Botswana has successfully maintained a robust macro-economic environment, lack of connection between economic growth and employment still remains a concern, adding that unemployment was worrisome and required urgent attention from policy makers.

“The reality is that, we need to work on youth unemployment, unemployed graduates, abject poverty and inequalities affecting our society,” he said.

He said there was a challenge of job creation adding that the number of unemployed graduates continues to rise.

He said graduates could take advantage of abundant opportunities by seeking employment from other countries.

Sharing her experience a Motswana citizen, who works in South Africa, as the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) finance and corporate affairs director, also implored the attendants to pursue job and business prospects beyond Botswana borders.

“You need to believe in yourselves and not hesitate to explore job and business prospects outside our country,” she said.

She said although in some countries there may be misconceptions that immigrants are stealing jobs, these were just remarks which were usually made by a few with intention to cause confusion and commotion.

She urged those interested to soldier on.

She said there was need for cooperation between countries to make bilateral decisions, which could male it easy for people to seek employment outside borders. ENDS