We’re doing our best to provide South Africans with opportunities.
And we want to know from you how we can do better at giving you access to more opportunities, writes IOL editor-in-chief Lance Witten.
It’s an old adage – If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.
I’d like to tell you what IOL stands for.
We believe, as a media organisation, that we have a role to play in building our democracy, and playing our part in making South Africa a better place.
Using our voice, as one of the largest and most trusted media businesses in the country, we have the power to link our readers to opportunities.
Whether these opportunities come in the form of a foot in the door, a helping hand with your finances, a bursary programme that will ease the burden of educating your children, or making better life choices after reading some of the best thought leadership pieces, we want to help.
This was evidenced in the launch of our #EatLocal platform – a space for small food businesses to list for free on a geo-tagged listings platform and access our marketing muscle to help spur their businesses on, the creation of our #EatLocal community where like-minded people could share news about their businesses, share their challenges, and collectively find solutions.
This opportunity-based thinking has also led us to build Student360 – a platform where you can find all you need when it comes to worksheets from Grade 1 right up to matric.
We also created a new Education content vertical on our website where our team works tirelessly to connect you, our reader, to opportunities like bursaries, internships, and apprenticeships.
We’ll soon be launching a very exciting new content vertical that will strengthen this drive to create opportunities for our readers.
Look at some of the stuff Zodidi Dano has covered over the past week or so:
A comprehensive list of all the bursaries still available for 2022
Employment opportunities in the Department of Basic Education
Top tips for students heading into Matric Finals
Unemployment is one of the major challenges facing South Africa’s youth, and if we can help address this challenge in some small way by providing our readers an opportunity to succeed, then we’ll do whatever it takes to achieve this.
Check out some of the amazing content Martin Hesse has been working on to help you manage your finances. Again, another opportunity to succeed. Look at the incredibly useful content Wesley Diphoko publishes around tech and how it can make your life easier, how to innovate to solve daily challenges in unique ways, both on IOL Tech, and Fast Company SA.
We’re doing our best to provide South Africans with opportunities.
And we want to know from you how we can do better at giving you access to more opportunities.
Of course, you’ll still get the breaking news and in-depth political news coverage you’ve come to love, and we’ll keep working to improve our checks and balances to ensure the news we bring you is beyond reproach.
But we’re also going to be finding more opportunities to make you smile.