To support our members in their efforts to promote qualifications and careers to a wide student audience, SAGEA has developed several student-facing platforms. Our members receive free or discounted access to these platforms as part of their membership package.
When the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly made face-to-face career fairs impossible, SAGEA developed the VirtualGradExpo to help our Employer members reach graduates virtually. At the same time, we wanted to provide our Higher Education (HE) members with platforms to support their career services’ physical and digital offerings, as needed. Post-pandemic, the VirtualGradExpo has become an integral part of the mix that our members use to connect with students.
Many of our HE members have excellent digital platforms of their own, and face-to-face engagements on campus remain critical elements of successful graduate recruitment campaigns. However, digital transformation is an ongoing project for many HE institutions. In addition, the geographical location of some campuses makes them difficult for employers to visit with the time and resources available to them. Because it is imperative to ensure inclusion for all students, we continue to offer this solution to our partner institutions and corporate members.
In our student evaluation survey, conducted after the 2022 VirtualGradExpo was completed, 80% of students who attended indicated that the ability to view and apply to employer opportunities from a single location was very useful to them. At the time of the survey, 65% of students who attended had applied to employer opportunities, and 61% had been offered either a graduate opportunity, an internship or a bursary.
The VirtualGradExpo consists of three pavilions:
General – for employers hiring graduates across all degree areas
STEM – for employers hiring science, technology, engineering and maths graduates
Accounting and law – for employers hiring graduates to join the accounting and legal fraternities
Member Benefit: SAGEA Employer and HE members get 20% off the cost of their VirtualGradExpo stands.
SAGEA’s student-facing website – graduateemployers.co.za – showcases employer rankings, based on SAGEA’s annual Employers of Choice Awards.
To assist students with their study and graduate programme application choices, the website also profiles some of the careers for which our Employer members recruit most frequently. Students can register on the website to receive alerts whenever one of our members adds a new opportunity, and when applications open for graduate programmes, according to their majors.
To further support our HE members who face resource constraints in their career services, the website also offers guidance on the foundations of job-hunting – how to compile a CV, interview tips, personal branding and so on.
Member Benefits: All Employer Members receive a free company profile page on the website, showcasing their graduate opportunities, application process and rank (where applicable) in the SAGEA Top 50 Employers of Choice. Opportunity alerts are sent to students registered on graduateemployers.co.za at no charge to members.
QuantifyYourFuture (QYF) is hosted by SAGEA and provides information and insights to potential learners and students, to enhance their understanding of new and emerging careers. Through this project, we support universities in promoting these qualifications by showcasing degree options at undergraduate and post graduate levels and ultimately, the range of Quantitative career opportunities in the world of work.
QYF introduced its first Virtual Internships in 2021. These Virtual Internships offered students the opportunity to gain exposure to real life work experience virtually – with a specific focus on new and emerging careers. This experience facilitated the development of the core skills needed in the world of work.
The QYF project is open for sponsorships and offers a host of targeted student engagement opportunities. This includes school outreach programmes, the Annual Career Innovation Showcase, the Virtual Internship Programme and the opportunity for sponsoring employers, as well as partnering HE Institutions or Foundations, to profile emerging careers, further study and funding opportunities.
Member Benefit: Our HE members’ relevant academic departments are invited to take up a complementary virtual stand at the QuantifyYourFuture Annual Career Showcase to promote their postgraduate opportunities.