Business Times reports that global aviation giant Emirates is on a hiring binge — and many of the 17,300 people it wants to recruit around the world in 350 roles will be South Africans.
The recruitment drive, announced in July, is a ray of light in a gloomy jobs picture in SA, where several multinationals have recently begun laying off hundreds of staff. Last week the airline conducted recruitment roadshows in Cape Town and Joburg for IT specialists to join its “comprehensive training and development programmes.” According to Afzal Parambil, Emirates’ manager for Southern Africa, most of the new hires in Africa will be from SA, because the country was an important transit hub for the airline. Emirates has 56 flights a week into SA and wants to add more. Parambil said Emirates was trying “to improve our local content” in the country and said over 700 cabin crew were recently recruited from SA. The airline already has more than 300 South African pilots, and more were likely to taken on to support the Emirates expansion plan.
Emirates last week offered IT specialists in SA training in “relevant tools and technologies” and promised them “e-learning, knowledge-sharing sessions, tech talks, hackathons, and a thriving community for coders and tech professionals”. Employment benefits offered by the Dubai-based airline include “a competitive tax-free salary, allowances, medical benefits and bonus eligibility, discounted flight tickets for self, family and friends”.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Isaac Mahlangu at Business Times (subscriber access only)
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