Large crowd at Youth Job Fair

A large crowd of young people from various regions in the country showed up for a job fair on Friday morning at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Some 700 persons had registered for the event.

The Job Fair is a new initiative coming from the Ministry of Social Cohesion – Department of Youth.

Representatives of a number of companies, including DDL, Giftland and Qualfon, were on hand to interview applicants.

Speaking to the young job seekers was Director of Youth, Melissa Carmichael, who said the Department of Youth is working to alleviate the issue of unemployment among youths by creating events like these.

She said many more will be held as time goes by.

“Youth unemployment is one of our major issues among young people and we are seeking to bring some among of resolve step by step, little by little, to this issue,” Carmichael stated.

Sekou Meusa of Qualfon Guyana said his company is hoping to hire as many young persons as they can since they have programmes available that will require a large workforce.

“At Qualfon, you can come be a part of the best BPO as we help to make people’s lives better.

“We want to ensure that we give persons the opportunity where they can come onboard be employed have fun at work, communicate well, and be a part of a great environment.”

Arifa Mohamed, the Business Development Manager of Social Rank and the Master Class Institute, said they were hiring six persons for fulltime positions but are looking for persons to also full part-time project-based jobs.

“We’re really just looking to have like a network of freelancers so if they are good at photography, videography, graphic design, website development, or even if they are just great at English.

“We are just looking to have them within our networks for various jobs,” Mohamed added

 Some of the applicants, speaking with News Room, said the job fair was what they expected and hoped that they would gain employment.

 The need for the job fair, the Director of Youth said, arose during consultations held with youths from across the country; she said the main complaint was of unemployment of young people even if they are qualified.