Telkom has employed over 100 bursary scheme graduates, spanning a range of skills from engineering to marketing and accounting.
The 130 graduates, deployed by SA's incumbent fixed-line operator last Thursday, completed their final year of study in 2011. Telkom says some graduates will continue their studies as they pursue honours degrees, while others will continue to obtain their masters degrees through the Telkom Centre of Excellence programme, a collaboration between Telkom, academia, the telecommunications industry and government to promote research in communications technology and associated science.
Forty-five of the graduates, says the company, have been placed in permanent positions, with the other 85 coming on board on the basis of a one-year contract, “with the aim of facilitating permanent placements”.
Chief of human resources at Telkom, Thami Msubo, says the company aims to both facilitate students' education and equip them with practical work experience in order for them to “launch into their respective careers”.
A further 213 students, currently in their second year of study and onwards, are also being facilitated by Telkom bursaries. Telkom will employ 138 final year students in 2013, while another 55 students started their first year of study this year.
Job insecurity
This young workforce boost follows an appeal by some 3 500 existing Telkom employees last Tuesday to the Competition Commission, in which they petitioned the body to consider their job security before imposing the proposed R3.5 billion fine on the company.
The commission has proposed the penalty due to Telkom's alleged abuse of its monopolistic position and cutting downstream service providers out of the market.
The employees are being represented by trade union Solidarity, which holds the stance that the imposition of the hefty fine would translate into a “serious blow to Telkom's profitability”. Solidarity spokesperson Marius Croucamp said last week that the possibility of large-scale retrenchments in this instance could not be ruled out.
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