Pinehas Nakaziko
WINDHOEK – Two young graduates, Festus Malakia, 27, and Benhard Shivute, 29, who both graduated from the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) with a Bachelor of Human Resources Management (HRM) in 2016 have established a company to help students and graduates struggling with internships.
“We seek to create a bridge between educational institutions, industries and the student or graduate population. We value skills development, thus we make it easier for students to secure internships and for prospective employers to find the right people that will add value to their organizations and contribute to national skills development,” adds Malakia.
The two have established the Prospect Human Capital Consultancy cc. Apart from helping students find internships, the company also caters for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that completely do not have a human resources departments or are struggling to efficiently develop and run their human capital.
According to Malakia, the main objectives are to create a skill set to complement and solve the ever growing skills demand within the Namibian context. He adds that their mission is to provide exceptional service by meeting clients’ expectations through professional service delivery.
“The corporation’s mission is realised through careful employment of skillful and experienced personnel, with broad understanding of the environment in which the corporation operates,” he adds. Currently the company has three students doing internship at different organisations and hopes to enrol more students this year. “So far we have approached several well-established companies to do business with us, although we are still waiting for their positive response,” says Shivute.
“We also want to bring positive changes to the youth graduates that are struggling to get employment by reducing the unemployment rate, and giving hope and motivation to the students that are still studying at various institutions,” adds Shivute.
Challenges they currently face in their endeavour are of big corporations’ reluctance to offer internships; interns unexposed to the duties and tasks related to their specific fields of study; lack of channels of exposure; lack of SMEs’ funding and limited internship opportunities for students.
The company is targeting expansion to avail its services countrywide and welcomes potential investors that believe in them. For more information, students may contact them via email: info.phcconsultancy@gmail.com.