Chandapiwa Baputaki
19 December 2008
The newly established National Internship Unit in the Ministry of Labour has already registered about 1,200 graduates who will be placed in several government and parastatal institutions to gain experience in the fields of their qualifications.
The programme is one of the initiatives introduced by President Ian Khama after he assumed the presidency in April this year. The programme is intended to solve high unemployment amongst graduate in the country. Under this programme, the graduate would be set to gain P2000 monthly for the period of twelve months, with P200 being saved for them for their personal use after completion of the programme.
According to the caretaker of the programme, Ditso Aneleng, the office has been set and recruitments for the start up of the office have been made. He explained that the office is ready to place about 800 graduates in January as they cannot place all at once. The second batch will be placed between February and March in the para-statals and the private sector.
However, Aneleng said that they have discussed with several government departments about how the monitoring of the performance of the interns will be monitored. Intern offices will be based in different areas around the country in Maun, Francistown, Palapye, Kanye, Gantsi and Gaborone where they would liaise with relevant officers where the students have been placed. Aneleng stated that the host organisation will be required to supervise the graduate releasing monthly and quarterly reports on performance.
This will be required to make sure that the graduate is gaining experience in the function of their qualification as per the agreed mandate with the National Internship Unit.
However, the graduate will have input in the final report. After twelve months, if the graduates have not found any job elsewhere, they would be required to move to make space for others. However, there is no deadline for registration.
Aneleng refused to give the exact amount that has been allocated to the programme citing that they looked at several factors when requesting the funds, which they ultimately got.
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