Africa is rising. Illiteracy levels are going down as more people are now enrolled in schools. However, there are challenges that constantly make it hard for Africa to develop at a faster pace. Among the top challenges, unemployment (and particularly youth unemployment) ranks highly. Youths go to school, score stellar grades and graduate with the hope of a better future. Unfortunately, there are few job opportunities to match the high number of the youths who graduate.
On the other hand, employers are forced to spend a lot of money on advertising for the few available jobs and on conducting interviews for the hundreds, or even thousands, of people who apply for these jobs. This becomes hard for the employers to get the best candidates for the jobs they advertised and reduces chances of employment for job seekers.
These challenges need a solution whereby the employers will be matched with the employees they need and the job seekers will increase their employment chances.
This solution was provided today when Fuzu was launched at Fairmont, the Norfolk in Nairobi. The event, dubbed Fuzu LaunchEvent, was graced by some reputable corporate personnel from organisations such as Rockefeller Foundation, M-Kopa, Ntv, Equity bank, TechnoBrain among others.
Fuzu is a comprehensive career development service that allows job seekers, irrespective of their level of education and seniority, to dream and plan their future, to learn new skills and competencies and ultimately to find a job that matches with their profile. It also helps in identifying matching candidates through powerful search and automated analysis of CVs. It further integrates online testing of candidates to the application process thus making it easy to find a candidate that best matches with the requirements.
Speaking at the event, Wairimu Kagondu, who is the senior program associate at Rockefeller Foundation, said that Fuzu will leverage on technology to solve the problem of youth unemployment. She further added that Fuzu will revolutionize the job market where employers will be able to pick employees from the many applications they receive and also help develop the staff already in employment.
M-Kopa’s head of human resources, Nyokabi Wairobi, described Fuzu as “LinkedIn on Steroids” to show the advantage Fuzu has over other online job boards. She said that this platform will help employers to post jobs, CV’s will be filtered through and they will get the candidates they need. She shared a brief history about M-Kopa regarding its employment. M-Kopa, now a microfinance company, was launched in 2012 and had only 11 personnel. Today, the company has about 650 personnel. To get to this number, many interviews were conducted and they had to screen through many CVs prior to employing anyone. This was a cumbersome process but she believes Fuzu will help her organization in terms of recruitment. She said that her organization is still growing and will require more personnel in future and Fuzu couldn’t have come at better time.
When Fuzu CEO, Mr. Jussi Hinkkanen, walked to the podium to give his remarks, the audience had already grasped what Fuzu is all about but still were waiting to hear more about this revolutionary concept. “Job boards don’t work, let work find you,” he remarked. He said that Fuzu is a virtual career coach that helps job seekers to dream, plan, learn and most importantly, get employed. It caters for a broad audience unlike other job boards. It also helps employers to attract the best talent, recruit fast and efficiently, match with their requirements and develop their staff.
Fuzu allows job seekers to play with different career options, learn and validate new skills and ultimately to find a position that matches with their profile. They are able to understand their shortcomings and to prepare for their next career steps.
For employers, Fuzu tests, sorts and suggests the candidates with the most relevant skills and competencies. They are able to search for talent, run the campaigns and test the candidates with only a fraction of the cost they would have incurred if Fuzu never existed.
Companies that have been working with Fuzu include, but are not limited to, KONE, TechnoBrain, Swissport, Craft Silicon, Chase bank and Equity bank.
One is free to use a mobile phone, a tablet, PC or laptop to access Fuzu. There are premium features for both the job seekers and the employers. For further information on this platform, log on to their website here https://www.fuzu.com/
