Musanze: Special job fair to curb unemployment, poor service delivery

By Elias Hakizimana.

Musanze Employment Service Centre in partnership with local authority and Rwanda Development Board (RDB) has planned for a job fair that will take place from September 5, 2022.

The job fair will target unemployed graduates, students in varsity’s final year, discouraged job seekers, employers in different private sector’s institutions, job agents and job fair organizers.

The job fair is a partnership between Musanze Employment Service Centre, Musanze District, RDB under the support of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) Rwanda.

Speaking during a one-day workshop that aimed to prepare the job fair on August 26, 2022, Aimable Rwigamba, Director General of Musanze Employment Service Centre, said that they want to expand partnerships with the private sector to ensure efficiency and professionalism as well as good service delivery among the private sector employers and employees.

“We want to have common understanding on efficiency and performance and find out how to link up job seekers and employers. We want participants to get ready to provide trainings, jobs as well as other opportunities for youth seeking for jobs within their enterprises.” Rwigamba said.

He said that this initiative will also embark on addressing poor service delivery by bridging the gap especially in hospitality sector.

“We want to bridge the gap related to skills and capacity through delivering relevant training, most of the times people do things of which they have neither academic or post-graduate training background. The employment service centers are there to sort out those challenges,” he said.

Various entrepreneurs from the private sector especially those involved in hospitality (hotels, bars and restaurants) were represented in the workshop.

Rwigamba said that they want to sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with these enterprises to always have in mind, that they must help the progress of effective job performance and service delivery.

Daniel Katurebe, Employment Service Specialist in Rwanda Development Board (RDB)’s skills office, said that this job fair will also take place in Huye District on September 9, 2022 to encourage both job seekers and employers to be active and committed.

Katurebe advised employers to embrace RDB’s Skills Office to get trainings for their employees instead of stealing workers from their counterparts.

“The private sector and RDB through its skills office, we have responsibilities to train both public and private sector’s workers, so, within our partnership with districts and employment service centers, we call upon employers to come to our officers to get trainings for their employees, “he said.

Paul Barajiginywa, the representative of the Private Sector’s service cluster in Musanze District, said that poor service delivery is an issue in our days’ working framework within the private sector. He noted that the job fair will address these challenges.

“Employers themselves are advised to participate to the trainings to gain more skills on efficient service delivery,” he said, adding that the employment service centers need to increase communication of their services towards the general public.

Andrew Mpuhwe Rucyahana, the Vice Mayor of Musanze District in charge of Finance and Economic Development said that, the Musanze Employment Service Center is under renovation progress with a total budget of Rwf1.7billion.

The expansion services of the center were sponsored by Enabel, and the implementation will add playing grounds for different games, as well as additional rooms dedicated for field dimensions, or Fab-labs, access to internet, expanded garden to facilitate trainees with safety while exploring their knowledge through reading, conference rooms, as well as the workshop place for various artisanal activities.

“Youth will manage to come and learn how to get ready for jobs, how to prepare Curriculum Vitae (CV), interview techniques, and how to save job data on computers,” he said.

Rucyahana requested various entrepreneurs to give internship, research and job opportunities to unemployed youth in their respective institutions.

Currently, in Rwanda, there are three employment service centers including this one of Musanze, the one of Huye and Kigali employment service center located in Kimisagara.

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