A Nelson Mandela Bay startup has devised an app that could bring opportunities – and relief – to thousands of unemployed township residents across the city.
The Ubuntu Net (TUN) app, to be officially launched early next month, will serve as a link between employers offering short-term job opportunities and workers eager to enter the job market.
However, TUN’s Kieron Paoli, who came up with the idea for the platform, hopes it will lead users to gainful permanent employment in the long run.
“The app is specifically focused on short-term employment, but we don’t want our users to sit on the system,” Paoli said.
“We want them to find permanent employment .
“Our goal is to serve as a link between jobseekers and employers.”
More than 1,200 people have already been registered on the system, which is limited so far to residents of Walmer township.
“We set up a shop with an internet cafe close to the township and we have three ladies who assist jobseekers to register and then verify their information.”
This is because only 10% to 15% of the registered jobseekers have smartphones, with the rest receiving communication from the app via SMS.
To register, users have to provide identification, proof of address and banking details, so that they can be verified and have active profiles.
The platform allows workers to register for opportunities in seven industries – manufacturing, business services, personal services, agriculture, mining, retail and hospitality.
Employers can search according to their needs and hire candidates to do any work, from filing or domestic work to painting or stocking shelves.
The employer’s account is then pre-debited provisionally, with payment being finalised when the candidate accepts the job and shows up for work.
“After they work, the employer can rate and review them, so their profiles serve as an online CV that keeps getting updated,” Paoli said.
Nedbank had come on board during TUN’s information sessions with the community, with accounts being set up for some residents who did not previously have bank accounts, he said.
He also hopes to get local training centres involved to assist in reskilling jobseekers.
“When we started working on the idea in 2017, we wanted to connect people to employers, but then we realised there weren’t that many jobs.
“In some cases we might need to reskill people to mobilise them [to join the job market],” Paoli said.
TUN already has support from the Propella business incubator.
“We have two business mentors who sit with us every week, and they’re helping to shape the business going forward,” Paoli said.
“It has helped so much, because [the whole experience] has been a massive learning curve.”
Propella’s adviser in information and communication technologies , Errol Wills, praised TUN for the value it was adding to the community.
“There are other [similar platforms] but this has a very specific focus,” Wills said.
“It creates a direct market for a relationship to exist between jobseekers and employers, where it was previously quite a brokered market.”