28 Oct 2020

 The IBranch Platform addresses the unprecedented unemployment gap in Botswana by increasing talent visibility to employers and jobs to job seekers.

 This is fundamental to accelerating employment placements and drawing the country closer to achieving sustainable development goals, Minister of Employment, Labour, Productivity and Skills Development Mr Mpho Balopi has said. 

  He was officially launching the platform in Gaborone on Tuesday.

 Minister Balopi said while Botswana had a growing unemployment challenge, the platform would be a strategic link in creating a friction-less interaction between the employer and potential employee as it utilised an online mobile application as well as being web-based. 

  He said it would help match the right skills with the right jobs at the click of a button and accelerate the connection of employers to employees.

The minister urged everyone, especially the private sector, to embrace and take ownership of the platform to make an impact in the delivery of decent jobs to Batswana.

He said plans were underway to also automate the registration of  job seekers.

Mr Balopi  appealed to the private sector and other development partners to join forces in promoting livelihoods and developing young people. 

Meanwhile, IBranch Platform chief executive officer Mr Tshepiso Leinane has described it as an online human resource management programme that was timely given challenges presented by the  COVID-19 pandemic.

According to him, the platform would minimize the tedious exercises involved in job hunting by offering an interface where job seekers could upload  resumes and employers could list vacancies. 

The platform was unique in that it could validate applications and vet potential employees making it easy for employers to sift through requests more easily and efficiently, he said.

Mr Leinane said the platform catered for both white and blue collar jobs which enabled everyone to have a chance to find a job regardless of geographical  location or economic circumstances.

He said the platform would also be used to connect students to attachments and internships while facilitating entrepreneurship around recruitment.

The programme is already in use and job seekers can start uploading their resumes. Ends