Vacancies — Southern African Wildlife College

The Southern African Wildlife College is an equal opportunity employer and recruitment, selection and staff development is based solely on the capabilities, qualifications and intrinsic qualities of the person. No decision will be based on race, sex, culture, age, religion, creed or on any other potentially subjective views or perceptions. In addition, the College will employ people taking into account affirmative action policies, equity planning and recognition of the abilities of differently-abled people.

The College always endeavours, wherever feasible, to fill all vacancies from within whilst giving due consideration to maintaining high standards. The college, and the HR department, will thus always first look at the role and at existing employees not only within the department but within the college as whole, to determine whether there is any employee who has been identified with potential, as part of our Leadership Development policy, who meets the requirements for the role and could be promoted into it. Vacancies are always be advertised within the College unless the position is such that it cannot be filled internally, under which circumstances the position will be advertised nationally and possibly even internationally.

The Equity Committee (EC) and the SAWC community forum and/or Community Liaison Officers will be notified of all vacancies in the interests of transparency and these will be advertised on all college notice boards and via staff email. Cognizance will be taken of the needs in terms of equal opportunities, equity and transformation and development when making appointments. All applicants are required to undergo integrity testing prior to employment.

Employment options available at the College

In order to meet the operational requirements of the College, and to conduct additional and/or extraordinary maintenance or hospitality tasks, the College may hire additional labour on a “casual” basis. The College has a firm commitment to the Mnisi Tribal authority and the communities within which it operates and it therefore undertakes to extend such casual employment, wherever and whenever possible, to community members, who will then have the opportunity to gain practical work experience to enable them to find employment elsewhere. Such labour will be remunerated on a “casual” hourly paid basis. Such employment will only be entered into for specific jobs or tasks that cannot be performed by permanent or fixed term contract staff at the College and where such tasks are of a fleeting and non-permanent nature, or as may crop up from time to time. The College will therefore employ a limited number of community members on a “casual” hourly paid basis with the following objectives:

– To provide practical work experience for residents of the local communities within which the College operates.

– To assist the College in overcoming operational shortages and/or to conduct maintenance by offering employment to local community residents.

– To utilize local community residents to fill vacancies caused by leave of absences due to illness, accidents or maternity leave

– No person under the age of 16 will be hired to work at the College.

The College has a commitment to conservation and furthering conservation, training and education in all fields and in all possible ways. To this end, as part of the College’s Education Programme, the College accepts applications from Volunteers who wish to live and work at the College and learn more about what the college does, about conservation, and about the communities within which we operate. The college accepts that volunteering is an easy way to get involved in practical conservation.

The College accepts a small number of these applicants each year, where it is felt that the experience will be of mutual benefit to the Volunteer and to the College. The Volunteer must be gainfully employed in value-added tasks or projects for the College during his/her term of volunteership. The period during which the services of the Volunteer are engaged at the College will be governed by an agreement to clarify the relationship and protect both parties.

Volunteers will be accepted for a minimum period of a month unless there are special circumstances, after which the situation will be reviewed with regard to the needs of both the Parties. Volunteers may not be employed for a period exceeding 12 months without expression permission from the HR Manager and a consensus on the need for an extended period by the Manager/s involved.

The College has a commitment to conservation and furthering conservation, training and education in all fields and in all possible ways. To this end, as part of the College’s Education Programme, the College accepts applications from Students who require practical experience to complete their related studies, who wish to live and work at the College to gain useful practical experience to assist them in future employment endeavours within the conservation field or associated support service fields.

The college also accept applications from and from people who have graduated from their course of study, but have no work experience, provided in some way that course of study is relevant to roles available at the college, and will take on a certain number of Interns each year in all departments, including the Hospitality and Maintenance departments. The college offers these Interns an opportunity to gain work experience in their respective fields. The College employs a small number of these applicants (Industrial Placements and/or Interns) each year, where it is felt that the experience will be of mutual benefit to the Industrial Placement/Intern and to the College.

The Industrial Placements and/or Interns must be gainfully occupied in value-added tasks or projects for the College during his/her term of service. The period during which the services of the Industrial Placements and/or Interns are engaged at the College will be governed by a formal agreement. Industrial Placements and/or Interns will be hired for a minimum period of 3 months, after which the situation will be reviewed with regard to the needs of both the Parties. Industrial Placements and/or Interns may not be employed for a period exceeding 12 months without expression permission from the Head of Human Resources and a consensus on the need for an extended period by the Manager/s involved.

The College has facilities specifically designed for research groups and students, and offers a camp ground, a caravan park and tented accommodation. The Applied learning department is involved with several research projects every year, and applications to conduct research at the college would be routed via HR to the Applied Learning department for approval and acceptance. The college, situated in a big five area, and involved as it is in cutting edge conservation education, is a perfect location for most research projects.

Current Vacancies / Opportunities

CONSULTANT NEEDED

FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ONLINE WEB-BASED DIRECTORY WITHIN THE CONSERVATION SECTOR

The Southern African Wildlife College is in the process of developing a training needs assessment tool for the Greater Limpopo Trans Frontier Conservation Are (GLTFCA). The tool takes the form of a website that lays out an idealised organogram structure for conservation areas, listing departments, positions of people within these departments, and the skills each person, at each level should have. The structure is based on IUCN recommendations, interviews with private and public sector conservation managers, as well as industry experts in each field of expertise. The website will be hosted by the Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC), who will also maintain it.

ROLE OF THE CONSULTANT

The consultant will be required to:

Assist in creating an online directory for training needs and analysis for job titles needed in the conservation sphere. The web application encourages users, organisations, and individuals to create profiles to be able to design their own personalised skills tree for the development of career pathways. It should also allow for service providers to create and list course offerings, using a generic organogram structure to display the job pathways
Work together in developing a training inventory, to provide input on the required database format, and to develop an online table with search functions which can be incorporated in other websites via an i-frame
The candidate will serve as additional capacity on the project and will need to work closely with the current Developer. Due to the modular nature of the project, the development has been done in Python using a Django web framework, utilising a PostgreSQL database, with a Postgis add-on. It is currently hosted in an Apache Server. The consultant will be required to assist with a complete overhaul of the front-end, where the most capacity is required.
Publish information on publicly accessible platform, with column heads in English, French and Portuguese

Qualifications and Experience Required

Full-Stack Developer

Front-end: HTML, CSS, js, bootstrap and jQuery
Back-end: Python, Django, PostgreSQL and apache

An ability to collect and enter data
Confidentiality – all aspects of this project will be subject to a confidentiality clause.
Minimum of 5 year’s experience and a degree in computer science
Previous project experience
Report writing skills

TENDERS/ PROPOSALS

Interested parties should:

Send a full curriculum vita
Certified copies of relevant qualifications
Submit a full proposal on how deliverables will be met, and reported on
Propose costs for services rendered/ deliverables met by accessing the following link: Annex 3 Budget allocation form – English.xlsx

All proposals and applications to be sent to mvanderwalt@sawc.org.za by 30^th September 2020 at 16h00. Download information here.

Employee Awards

The Southern African Wildlife College believes that service excellence is an integral component to the College and is essential to the effective achievement of the College’s operational objectives or day-to-day business. The achiever of the Month lucrative scheme at the College is linked to a financial reward in order to encourage employees to exceed to the required standard of performance at the College and to motivate them to be creative and initiative in their day-to-day operations. The achiever of the Month award is based on the belief that productivity is linked to motivation and the College’s goals will not be reached or achieved unless working relations between the College’s employees, students, and visitors are based on both trust and mutual contribution.

The College also believes that the achiever of the Month lucrative scheme is a communication forum between top management and their subordinates. The Achiever of the Month Award is awarded every month and will be used to accurately reflect the development of employees in different divisions, and also to provide a clearer and more objective view of individual employees as a whole. The decision on who is the Achiever of the Month will be linked to aspects such as Safety, Human relations, Quality of work, Attitudes, Initiative, Dedication etc., and is determined via a voting system at the Inter Departmental (ID) Committee forum, a forum for middle level managers. Nominations are called for from all departments and all levels of staff, as well as staff, and ID committee will then convene a meeting to select the best employee nominated amongst others, taking into account all principles which have been set out in the nomination form. Senior managers do not have a say on the process other than being able to nominate staff for this award.

In addition to the Achiever of the Month awards, the college recognizes employees for exceptional above-and-beyond inputs and achievements with the CEO award; recognizes staff for doing things that are not their job but which enhance the college’s reputation and ability to conduct its business with the Rhino Award; and recognizes actions and ideas which lead to safer working conditions for all with the Safety Award.

The Achiever of the Month ceremony is also used a forum to hand out certificates to staff who have undergone training or passed courses as beneficiaries of the college’s educational assistance programme; to wish all staff having a birthday that month a happy birthday; and for staff announcements.

10 yrs of service: Nomsa Mathebula, 5 yrs of service: Surprise Seepane, Louis Lubisi, Bernard Ntimba, Marilize van der Walt, Thulani Kivert Machabe, Dziliang Elvis Mkhonto, Ruben De Kock, Johanna Maria De Kock, Setoromane Sainet Mokgope, Sboniso Ryan Phakathi, Precious Mathebula, Rejoyce Mdhlovu, Vutomi Mnisi, Thabisile Sibuyi, Condrie Collen Mkansi, Tomas Twarisani Ndhlovu, and Daphne Gengayan.