DPW warns of scam ‘promising 700 learnerships’

It “promises to place the learners in a number of fields including brick-laying‚ plumbing‚ carpentry‚ boiler making‚ tiling and others”.

But it’s a scam‚ the Department of Public Works (DPW) has warned.

“While the DPW has trained and continues to train hundreds of youth in these fields through its Expanded Public Works Programme‚ the recruitment on the internet through social networks‚ SMS‚ and WhatsApp is a scam‚” it said in a statement.

The scam‚ it added has been targeting “learners from grade 10 to 12 including graduates…promising 700 learnerships at the department”.

It said the scam contains “a link that takes the learnership programme seekers to a ‘Jobs Department’ website”‚ which contains a “big headline” saying…Public Works Learnership programmes”.

This links to “a Facebook sign-up page‚ requesting personal information like the name and surname‚ date of birth‚ phone or email address”.

“The contact people on the recruitment‚ Ester Sehlapelo and Linda Kaseke‚ do NOT work for the National Department of Public Works and the phone numbers listed do not belong to the National Department of Public Works‚” the DPW statement said.

“The Department of Public Works is an equal opportunity employer and would never exclusively advertise jobs and learnership programmes on the internet and social media because that would exclude a large number of South Africans not on social media.

“If in doubt‚ please go to the nearest Public Works office to verify with the HR unit or the Human Capital Investment unit. Alternatively‚ go to the official DPW website on www.publicworks.gov.za.” – TMG Digital