Tujoromajo Kasuto
Office of the Prime Minister says although the automation of systems in the government service is a no brainer, it is unlikely that the government would automate its employment application system anytime soon.
The chief public relations officer in the Office of the Prime Minister, Rhingo Mutambo says that calls for automated applications is raised in many government deliberations and is working quietly to digitise its systems.
‘’Only the wheel of change has a wider orbit to reach its full circle, for many to see progress made. We will sooner or later get there,’’ Mutambo affirms.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation (MLIREC) Executive Director, Lydia Indombo believes that digitalisation of applications for employment can save resources for both employees and employers.
This could however be only realized once all employers start to comply with the requirements of the Employment Services Act, 2011 (No. 8. 2011) by reporting vacancies and recruiting through the NIEIS.
The Labour Ministry in achieving its mandate of facilitating employment creation efforts in the country developed the Namibia Integrated Employment Information System (NIEIS) in 2010 and now almost 12 years later, a total of 15 200 job seekers are registered.
The main purpose of the System is to register job seekers, vacancies in the public and private sectors and assist job seekers in finding suitable employment. On the same system, employers can also upload opportunities like tenders, grants and vacancies.
Indombo notes that the world is moving fast to digitalisation, but one must consider that not all Namibians have access to technological devices to access digital employment vacancies.
She highlights that ‘’it remains a challenge when it comes to people in the rural areas as they will be disadvantaged from having equal opportunities in the labour market should it happen that the manual process is totally phased out’’.
The Ministry conducts outreaches to remote areas to enable jobseekers in those areas to register and/or update their resumes on the system.
Over the last two years, the ministry has registered about 1 687 jobseekers in various industries on the system 476 in the 2020/2021 financial year and 1 211 in the 2021/2022 financial year.
Employment officers in the ministry conduct job canvassing by visiting establishments to solicit employment for job seekers.
