Zutari declared graduate employer of choice at GradStar Students’ Choice Awards 2020

Working actively towards making an engineered impact in the communities it serves, and co-creating complete solutions in collaboration with its clients, resulted in Zutari taking first place in the Professional Services: Consulting Engineering category as a preferred graduate employer at the GradStar Students’ Choice Awards 2020.

“This is testament to our strategy of incorporating different skills, backgrounds and experience to allow us to thrive as a business. While we always work as a team, we allow space for each other’s differences, while building the trust needed to achieve shared goals,” comments Zutari Chief People Officer Dean Naidoo.

For the past five years, BlackBark Productions’ GradStar Awards have identified the most employable tertiary-level students. September saw the announcement of the Top100 Students of 2020 and also the ‘10 of the Finest’. Last year the students were also asked to list their top five preferred employers. After receiving almost 5 000 responses and over 23 000 unique answers, the GradStar Students’ Choice Awards 2020 were selected. The winners were announced in a webinar hosted on 17 November 2020.

Zutari participates in career events at all key universities to engage with students about graduate opportunities, as well as hosting vacation work programmes aimed at providing students with practical work experience during university holidays, aligned with the students’ fields of study and university requirements.

“The future of our business relies on the education and skills of tomorrow’s leaders, and therefore we invest heavily in our emerging talent programme to attract top talent and build our future leadership pipeline,” explains Zutari Emerging Talent Recruitment Partner Modlay Davids.

To support this pipeline, Zutari funds 44 undergraduate bursars in civil, mechanical, electrical and electronics, mechatronics, chemical and industrial engineering at leading universities, including the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University, University of Pretoria and the University of the Witwatersrand. A total of 75% of all bursars are black candidates and 43% are female. Zutari’s total bursary spend represents an investment in education of more than R4 million a year.

In addition, Zutari partners with the Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works through the Masakh’iSIzwe Bursary Programme to address skills shortages in transport, engineering and the built environment by providing bursaries and related support services for studies towards relevant diplomas and degrees.

“The successful development of our young professionals provides Zutari with the next generation of leaders and technical experts who embody the values, culture and behaviours of our organisation,” concludes Davids. Zutari employees work in multidisciplinary, multisector and multicultural teams that pool their skills and expertise across Africa and its design centre locations.