Rone Groenewald, who obtained her Honours in Industrial Psychology at TUKS, is the MD of TouchStone Recruitment and led the session. She was joined by Johanita Malan, who also graduated from TUKS on completion of her BCom Human Resource Management. Malan is an HR Administrator at TouchStone Recruitment. Emphasis was placed on helping the students discover their values, their own personal brand as well as their goals. All this was important in helping students ensure their value-add was clearly reflected in their CVs to reflect this.

The next part of the class session was centred on issues relating to online profiles, given the growth and importance of the internet, and specifically social media. Students were given tips on how to manage their online profiles, ensuring that it was professional and in line with their personal brands. A practical session in the labs with the students, where the online session was put into practice, was also included. Students were also assisted to create and adapt their LinkedIn profiles to ensure they are professional and attractive to potential employers.

Overall, the session was a great success and students had only positive feedback to give. Honours student, Mike Colley, said, “With regards to TouchStone, I was, and still am, impressed with their help and will personally recommend them. I sat down one Saturday and wrote out my CV using their guidelines and posted it online on Pnet on Sunday. Monday afternoon I had a call from Indlovukazi recruitment agency about an assignment for Simba, for the following day. During my assignment I had a second call from Hollard, seeing my CV online and asking for an interview. After the assignment with Simba, I had a call two weeks later offering me a position and now I am permanently employed with Simba.”

Another student, Realeboga Kgobokoe said, “The two TouchStone guest lecturers were highly informative about the job market and dispelled a lot of the myths that mislead us. They gave us helpful tips on how to secure that first job. These are the things that make our honours programme the special programme it is.”

Not only did Groenewald and Malan provide the students with a very helpful session, they also gave the students some material on CV writing titled, Keep calm and write your CV – the ultimate step-by-step CV-writing guide. They also provided students with a personal branding guide to assist them going forward.