Telkom welcomes its graduates
Telkom today announced the Company has employed 130 graduates who completed their final year of study in 2011 on Telkom bursaries. Some graduates will continue their studies as they pursue their Honours degrees. While others will continue their studies even further to obtain their Masters degrees through the Telkom Centre of Excellence programme.
Telkom welcomes the range of new skills that these graduates bring into the company with a range of qualifications that span Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science and IT, Marketing and Accounting.
The Company has already placed 45 graduates in permanent positions, while 85 students have been employed on a one year contract with the aim of facilitating permanent placements.
"Telkom prides itself in facilitating the studies of these students and also in equipping them with essential and practical work experience as they launch into their respective careers," explains Mr Thami Msubo, Chief of Human Resources at Telkom.
Telkom bursaries continue to facilitate the studies of 213 active students currently in the second year of study and onwards; of which 138 final year students can look forward to employment at Telkom in 2013. Another 55 students have begun the first year of study in 2012.
The Telkom bursaries awarded to these students covers registration fees, tuition fees, accommodation, meals as well as books and computer allowances.
Post graduate bursars are encouraged to continue their studies and research via the Telkom Centres of Excellence programme. This programme is a collaborative programme between Telkom, academia, the telecommunications industry and government to promote research in communication technology and associated sciences. Sixteen Centres of Excellence have been established across the country, at various universities, making it the largest coordinated research effort in ICT in South Africa. To date the programme has produced approximately 2400 Doctoral and Masters level graduates.
Last year, 53 Telkom bursars conducted their research at the various Centres of Excellence. This year, 28 of these students completed their research and have been employed at Telkom. Currently, 40 Telkom bursars are conducting their research at the sixteen Centres of Excellence across the country.
"Telkom remains committed to developing ICT skills in South Africa, both in the bursaries we award and through the Telkom Centre of Excellence programme. Furthermore we believe that the job opportunities afforded to our graduates supports the national agenda of job creation and employment," concludes Telkom Group CEO Ms Nombulelo Moholi.
For further enquiries, please contact:
PYNEE CHETTY
Senior Specialist: Media Relations
Tel.: (012) 311-5247
Cell: 081 389 7874
Email: chettpr2@telkom.co.za
or
LEIGH-ANN FRANCIS
Specialist: Media Relations
Tel.: (012) 311-7114
Cell: 081 391 4780
Email: francilm@telkom.co.za
About Telkom
Telkom is a leading communications services provider in South Africa and on the African continent. We had consolidated normalised operating revenue from continuing operations of R33.4 billion and normalised profit for the year from continuing operations of R2.4 billion for the year ended 31 March 2011. Total assets from continuing operations amounted to R54.3 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R29.6 billion as of 31 March 2011. The group generated normalised free cash flow of R3.5 billion for the year ended 31 March 2011.
As of 31 March 2011, we had approximately 4.2 million telephone access lines in service and 99.9% of our telephone access lines were connected to digital exchanges. We offer business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of services and products, including:
- fixed-line subscription and connection services to post-paid, prepaid and private payphone customers using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, and the sale of the subscription based value-added voice services and customer premises equipment rental and sales;
- fixed-line traffic services to post-paid, prepaid, and payphone customers, including local, long distance, fixed-to-mobile, international outgoing and international voice-over-internet protocol traffic services;
- interconnection services, including terminating and transiting traffic from South African mobile operators, as well as from international operators and transiting traffic from mobile to international destinations;
- fixed-line data centre operations and internet services,including domestic and international data transmission services, such as point-to-point leased lines, ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services, packet-based services, managed data networking services and internet access and related information technology services;
- e-commerceincluding internet access service provider, application service provider, hosting, data storage, e-mail and security services;
- W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G next generation network, including fixed voice services, data services and nomadic voice services;
- mobile communication services, including voice services, data services and handset sales through its mobile brand called 8•ta; and
- other services including directory services, through Trudon (Proprietary) Limited, wireless data services, through Swiftnet (Proprietary) Limited and internet services outside South Africa, through iWayAfrica Group (integration of Africa Online Limited and MWEB Africa Limited).