A report by the Auditor General – ETC’s job matching service: Meeting the requirements of employers and registered job seekers – was laid on the Table of the House of Representatives by the Honorable Speaker in terms of the Auditor General and the National Audit Office Act.

 Job matching is one of the core services provided by the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) to job seekers and employers.  The Corporation uses a computerised system to match details of job vacancies it receives against data on registered job seekers. During the period of registration, job seekers are also referred to programmes and schemes organized by the Corporation with the aim of increasing the employability of registrants and strengthen their job search skills and motivation.

 The report focused on three key areas, namely:

-                 The effectiveness of the job matching service in addressing employers’ requirements.

-                 The measures to evaluate and assist job seekers.

-                 Issues related to training offered by ETC to registrants.

A number of initiatives designed to facilitate job matching and provide an improved and faster service to clients have been launched over the past years.  Most notable were the implementation of a new information system and improvements to the way employers are informed of job matching results.  The Corporation, however, needs to continue to tackle a variety of obstacles in order to exploit the full potential of these initiatives.

The report also presented the results of a survey that targeted private and public sector employers who used ETC’s job matching services during the period September 2004 to August 2005.  Over 70 per cent of those interviewed reported an improvement in the job matching service, with 94 per cent stating they would use the service again.  However, the majority of respondents were of the opinion that ETC needs to carry out more effective screening by submitting only the most suitable job seekers to employers.  On this issue, NAO noted the need for more effective identification and monitoring of candidates by ETC, even in view of the challenge of managing a number of registrants who seem unwilling to work.

ETC makes use of structured profiling interviews to collect comprehensive information on job seekers.  There is, however, still more to be done to ensure that all registrants are immediately profiled soon after the timelines set out in the National Action Plan for Employment.  Delays in the conduct of these interviews have a direct impact on the quality of job matching process and submissions to employers.  Changes are being considered by ETC to improve and strengthen the process.

The Corporation has launched a number of courses aimed at providing specific training to registrants that are most at risk of remaining unemployed.  Nonetheless, the majority of courses attended are obligatory ones and registrants are not applying out of their own initiative.  One of the key problems is the lack of understanding on the part of registrants of the need for them to undergo further training to improve their chances of employability.   The Corporation has also experienced high average waiting times for registrants to start a course after they have been identified as requiring training. ETC is aware of this backlog and has since embarked on measures to address this problem.

The report also proposes recommendations with the aim of encouraging further improvements to the management and delivery of ETC’s processes and services.