Accsys, a national provider of HR and payroll management solutions, has recruited a learner from the Midrand Graduate Institute as part of its ongoing skills recruitment campaign. The company is a long-time industry partner of the education institution and regularly hosts site visits and workshops to offer prospective job seekers insight into the practicalities of the industry.
Lindiwe Nkosi is pursuing a career in HR and aims to secure her BCom degree in HR management at the end of 2008.
She is one of a handful of students who recently visited Accsys and was selected to gain practical experience as part of the company’s Learnership Program.
Her nine-month contract with Accsys affords her the opportunity to gain experience within an established corporate environment, and fulfill the practical internship requirement of her formal studies.
As part of her duties as recruitment assistant Nkosi is being exposed to the fundamentals of corporate HR in action. Under the guidance and supervision of Accsys management, she is sitting in on interviews – and, in some cases, assisting in conducting these sessions.
She is also familiarizing herself with the administration side of this business silo and also directly involved in helping to ensure that the Accsys Recruitment Division matches up candidates with the requirements received by clients.
“My focus is on HR management and my objectives are to use the experience I gain to broaden my knowledge and network within the industry, with a view to securing a management position within the field,” says Nkosi. “I believe that by handling this level of responsibility at the early stage of my career is critical to achieving stability and control.
The 22 year-old from Pretoria has the ambition to one day open up her own training & development facility that will focus on the corporate market with specific attention to business consultation, HR recruitment and development, and grow to extend to the industrial sector.
Teryl Schroenn, CEO at Accsys, says that the HR industry is not immune to the impact of an ongoing skills shortage across many sectors. There must be a more concerted effort by stakeholders to attract, broaden and retain skills she says.
“We believe that by facilitating workshops and site visits, and providing access to our apprenticeship program for those who want to actively pursue their interest in human resources and payroll, we are making a meaningful contribution towards efforts to address the need for skills. However, if we are to seriously tackle shortages and enhance industry standards and knowledge application, there must be proactive communication and deliberation between interested parties. This includes companies, training and education institutions as well as the individuals themselves,” says Schroenn.
“Our message on the issue of skills development and recruitment is clear: we need to sustain momentum in training and skills development initiatives in order to provide the market with effective candidates. Accsys takes its role as mentor and facilitator very seriously – we hope that through these workshops and behind-the-scenes visits by students, those seeking a career in payroll or HR management will be presented with a clear, realistic picture of what is involved, what is required and in what sense these skills are applied,” she adds.
