By Biruk Girma
Posted to the web on December 13, 2007 |
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December 12, 2007 (Addis Ababa) – A newly Africa-wide job search website will benefit Africans in the Diaspora find jobs in their home country or elsewhere in the continent, owners of the website announced on Monday.
The announcement was made at a launching of the job search engine set to avail a range of employment opportunities for Ethiopians and the African Diaspora.
The website, named www.zebrajobs.com is a result of partnership between the Info Mind Solutions, an Ethiopian owned human resource development company and the US-based Danya International Inc.
The joint venture is meant to be a platform for employers and job seekers alike to meet and exchange job related information through the Internet The company hopes the board, which targets Africans in Diaspora would add opportunities for those who want to come home and be part of nation building efforts but do not know how.
"Significant number of human capital had left the continent for many reasons. Now the continent is growing and has compatible posts for them (the Diaspora) do not necessarily know from where to begin," Yussuf Reja, Owner and Managing Director of Info Mind Solutions told a joint press conference with a senior representative of the US company after the two parties signed the agreement at the Global Hotel.
The www.zebrajobs.com would be more than a job site where it enhances the capacity building of Africa's greatest asset, its human capital by providing career information, internship and education opportunities, as well as information on skills upgrading trainings" he added.
Jeff Hoffman, CEO and President of Danya International, said on his part that there are some 10,000 aggregate posts for which they expect over one million job seekers to register.
"Finding a good job is one of the most important steps in a person's life. If this investment can help people in Africa to find good jobs, we will have made an important contribution," the CEO said.
It is hoped that the new website will bring opportunity for hundreds of thousands of job seekers and employers to meet in modern and innovative ways.
According to the officials, job seekers would be able to receive up-to-date information on employment opportunities, create and post their resumes, as well as receive free career advice; while employers will have the benefit to post jobs, receive applications in various formats, and take advantage of a built-in advanced applicant tracking tool, they added.
The officials also noted that job seekers will not be charged for registering on the web site.
They will not be charged any fees even after landing on a job, either, they said.
But companies who are now posting their vacant positions free of charge would be paying in the future, according to the officials.
Most of the income would be from advertisers on the site.
Info Mind solutions, the parent company of Talent Search and Ethiojobs.net, the premier human resource solution provider in Ethiopia has so far assisted over 250 national and multinational organizations in recruitment since its establishment 2004.
Ethiojobs.com has so far registered over 70,000 candidates of which 3,000- 4,000 recruitments are being made annually via the search engine,according to Yussuf.
Founded in 1996, Danya International is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, with offices in Atlanta, Georgia providing services in the areas of public health communication, research and evaluation, information technology, education and training, program management support, and health product development.
Many see the launch of the website would prove instrumental in retaining and pulling skilled man power to Africa, a continent stricken by brain drain, particularly in medical professions.
According to a resent estimate, some 20,000 doctors, university lecturers, engineers and other professionals desert the continent annually since 1990.
Over 300,000 highly qualified Africans currently are said to be in Diaspora, of whom 30,000 have PhDs.
(Daily Monitor)
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