South African Students name government departments IDEAL™ Employers

The annual Magnet IDEAL™ Employer award ceremony, which took place on Thursday, 2 December 2010 at the Michelangelo Hotel in Sandton, saw rank outsider National Health Laboratory Servicevoted into third position by South Africa’s science students.

“This is an extraordinary achievement in anybody’s book,” says Peter Johansson, MD of Magnet Communications, the company that undertakes the annual student survey of IDEAL™ employers. “This year students demonstrated a great degree independence in making their choices. They chose three organisations that were not on the research questionnaire’s basic list of 130 employers.”

The basic list of 130 employer organisations is compiled every year by Magnet’s research team on the basis of its broad understanding of the current employer branding environment, emerging trends and past rankings. This year science students voted the National Health Laboratory Service into the number three position by choosing to add it to the basic list of 130. Science students and humanities students also voted two other organisations onto the list: the Department of Health and the Department of Education.Both these organisations were voted into the top position from nowhere on the list.

The winners were identified during Magnet’s three-month research programme, which elicited the responses of over 38 700 students at South Africa’s 23 universities. The research questionnaires also ask students to share their thoughts on a wide range of topics such as: where they would prefer to work; what their career goals are; what makes an employer attractive and what communication channels they prefer. In addition, students provide information about what companies can do to increase their appeal and employer attractiveness.

The research identifies employers in four areas of study: business / commerce; engineering / technology; health Care / health sciences / sciences; and humanities / liberal arts /law. This year commerce students voted KPMG their number oneIDEAL Employer, which pushed ABSA into second place — after having been in the number one spot since 2006. Engineering students once again voted Eskom into the number one spot — a position it has maintained since 2008.

The South African Government has always been high on the list of preferred employers among South Africa students. It has been the number one preferred industry in South Africa for the overall student sample since 2006. In 2010 Government we see that it is 3rd among SA Indian / Asian students overall, 14th among white students overall, 4th amongst commerce students overall, 12th amongst engineering students overall, 2nd amongst science students, and 1st among humanities.