The Dube TradePort Corporation has launched an ambitious internship programme designed to provide select graduates from various KwaZulu-Natal tertiary education institutions the opportunity to gain meaningful work experience to complement their studies.

Directed at young people who had or were in the process of completing undergraduate or postgraduate studies, recruits would undergo a number of in-house learning interventions designed to prepare them for the transition into the world of work and afford them the skills to become competent and credible employees.

Training would take place at the corporation’s offices in La Mercy, north of Durban, and would offer experience for trainees in the fields of accounting, contracts and compliance, supply chain management, human resources, marketing, network and data centre management, maintenance, horticulture, agricultural science and/or engineering, tissue culture, water quality, development, town planning, environmental management, quantity surveying, architecture and the built environment and/or civil engineering, as well as safety, environment, risk and quality.

To qualify for the internship programme, applicants were required to have no prior work experience in their field of study, good communication skills and basic computer literacy.

Commenting on the motivation behind the establishment of the programme, CEO Dr Saxen van Coller said, in many of the more competitive job markets, the completion of an internship or any other form of in-service training was regarded as an essential mechanism for graduates to differentiate themselves.

“Dube TradePort Corporation believes it has a responsibility to make a significant contribution in this regard. Our organisation is willing to train interns and give them the experience they require to secure employment and pursue their aspirations.

“Further, gaining experience in the workplace is a great way to foster a graduate's confidence, giving him or her the opportunity to apply knowledge gained at tertiary institutions in the real world,” she commented.