The 8th Annual Botswana IFSC Career Fair took place on the 9th of September 2011 in Gaborone. The fair was hosted in partnership with Standard Chartered Bank, Island View, Human Resources Development Advisory Council (HRDAC) and Orange Botswana. The event gathered over 1000 recent graduates, final year tertiary students and young professionals and had 44 participating companies.

The 2011 Career Fair was held under the theme “Integrating Graduates into the Knowledge Economy”. This is in recognition of the country’s major diversification initiatives that aim to transform Botswana into a knowledge economy, where specialist skills and expertise will be essential. These key economic drivers include the creation of centres of excellence in the form of economic clusters that are aimed at enhancing the growth and diversification of the Botswana’s economy.

This year’s career fair was therefore aimed at preparing and positioning young graduates and aspiring leaders to effectively contribute to the facilitation of the country’s current and future economic development programmes in support of our Governments’ strategy of transforming Botswana into a knowledge economy.

The Fair grants an opportunity for a conducive platform for mutually beneficial interaction between exhibiting companies and the young aspirant job seekers. Participants at the Fair had an opportunity to sharpen their skills through participation in different career clinics. These clinics comprised of Business and Entrepreneurial Skills facilitated by BF Lifestyle, CV Writing and Interviewing Skills by the HR Business Partners and People Connections as well as Goal Setting and Leadership Skills by Leadership Education and Development (LEAD).

The Botswana IFSC Career Fair is part of the Botswana IFSC Skills Readiness Initiative, our Corporate Social Investment program that aims to improve Botswana’s ability to compete in the global market place by addressing, improving and highlighting the development of a skilled labor force. This initiative is aimed at ensuring that sufficient skills are available in the Botswana labour market, particularly in those sectors of the economy that investors are keen to invest in.

Alongside the Annual Career Fair is the Private Sector Internship Program and Botsjobs.com, an online job portal accessed at, www.botsjobs.com

Botswana IFSC would like to thank all companies that supported and participated in the 2011 Career Fair.