By: Uakutura Kambaekua
Ritja Career Fair will host its first education seminar of the year this week at various schools in the Omaheke region in a bid to build and nurture a cohesive comprehension of after-school life.
Formed in 2013, Ritja is a grass-roots, not-for-profit organisation founded under the patronage of Khomas regional governor Laura McLeod-Katjirua.
The event will be hosted at Okorukambe village before moving to the region’s capital town, Gobabis on Friday. The Fair is held annually in different parts of the country with the sole purpose of encouraging learners to make informed decisions with refgard to the career paths they wish to trail.
The Fair also provides scholars with an opportunity to gain the requisite knowledge about courses that suit them the most based on their subjects and coursework understanding and the job opportunities available in specific fields.
Event coordinator Hilma Petrus said the Fair focuses on youth elevation in regard to education and entrepreneurship while creating an engagement platform for students and different institutions in regard to self-employment.
“Its focus is on elevating the youth with regard to education and entrepreneurship by creating a platform for the engagement of students, youths and different institutions both in academic and in business with regards to self-employment,” Petrus said.
The Fair, added Petrus, has had a positive outcome from the onset as it connects students to different learning and business opportunities which allow them to have a handful of options which in turn allow them to make the right decisions based on their passions and personalities.
She noted that this year’s event has been driven by substandard national results which saw more than 70% of last year’s grade 11 students who sat for the national examination failed to qualify for the tertiary level.
“The fair is driven by the recently published national results, coming to the realisation to engage in a more comprehensive multisectoral and results-oriented event that will allow students an opportunity to engage with various institutions and receive proper guidance as they require,” she said.
Other schools the career Fair hosted in the past are Mweshipandeka Secondary School in Ongwediva in the Oshana region, Okondjatu and Okamatapati combined schools in Okakarara in the Otjozundjupa region, as well as other schools in the Erongo region.
For the past 10 years, the event has not veered away from its core objectives of providing clear career guidance to all learners and to create a networking platform for students to interact and share information.
Ritja Career Fair is the brainchild of the national broadcaster’s (NBC) Omurari investigative journalist Uzeraije Kapika Tjazerua.
The idea was birthed in 2013, after various discussions with the late governor of the Otjozondjupa Region Rapama Kamehozu in 2012.