By Shruti Menon Seeboo
The Mauritian labour market is navigating a complex transition, marked by persistent skills gaps, evolving worker expectations, and a structural shift in economic priorities. It is against this backdrop that CareerHub, a reference point recruitment agency on the island, hosted the 17th edition of its flagship event, the JobFair x AnbaPie, on October 3 and 4. Held at L’Aventure du Sucre in Beau Plan, the event was guided by the defining theme: Culture is Connection.
This edition, shaped in partnership with Terra Group and Awanam, reflects CareerHub’s commitment to an event centred on human interaction. Designed to allow visitors—whether actively job-seeking or simply exploring—to meet company teams directly, it offered a crucial opportunity to expand networks and understand corporate culture far beyond the limitations of simple job descriptions. Significantly, this fair marked the first time that essential manual trades, such as plumbing and construction, were actively highlighted, underscoring a commitment to bridging the gap between academic and vocational career paths. Building on 16 successful preceding editions, CareerHub continues its mission to showcase company culture and foster direct connections between talent and organisations, directly addressing the endemic challenges within the national recruitment sector.
From Transaction to Interaction: A New Recruitment Philosophy
At the core of the event’s purpose is a philosophical revolution in how recruiters engage with candidates, a concept championed by Emmanuel Maujean, Director of CareerHub. Maujean argues that the traditional recruitment model is fundamentally flawed and transactional.
Maujean highlighted the limitations of the current system: “In many recruitment experiences today, the process remains largely transactional. As a candidate, I come with my CV, drop it in a mailbox… and as a recruiter, I process this document with the intent to serve the company’s interests.” He noted, however, that this approach often overlooks an essential dimension of the exchange: “In this transactional model, we risk losing the human aspect that should be at the heart of every professional encounter. Why is that important, you ask? Because recruitment goes beyond matching skills to job descriptions — it’s also about understanding what lies behind a job offer: the company’s values, its opportunities for growth and training, and how it supports work-life balance. These are things you can’t read in a job ad; they emerge through genuine human connections.”
This sense of disconnection—between candidates and recruiters, and between the market and companies—is what CareerHub aims to solve. While past generations came to work mostly “to earn a salary”, today’s talents seek more. “Professionals are no longer driven solely by the desire to earn a salary — they’re looking for deeper meaning and purpose in their work”, Maujean explained.
This paradigm shift is particularly urgent when recruiting the next generation of workers. Maujean warned that ignoring this demand is an economic risk: “If we want to attract the new generation — Gen Z, and soon Generation Alpha — we need to start adapting now,” Maujean explained. “By 2030, Gen Z will represent around 30% of the workforce. To engage them, we have to move beyond transactions and focus on genuine connection.” For him, shifting from a transactional approach to one based on interaction is no longer optional.
His overall philosophy is a powerful rejection of the status quo: “I no longer believe in the job market as it is at the moment, or at least in the way of recruiting at the moment.” Instead, true recruitment consists of “formal and informal moments. And that is exactly why we came up with CareerHub’s Jobfair x AnbaPie. Throughout this edition, visitors discovered much more than job opportunities — they experienced a space designed for genuine exchange and connection.”
The Ministerial Response: Aligning Policy with Modern Demands
The relevance of the JobFair’s theme was reinforced by the presence of Labour Minister the Hon. Reza Uteem, who addressed the government’s strategy for tackling national labour challenges. Minister Uteem affirmed that the Ministry is actively engaged in bridging the national skills gap. “One of the main missions of the Ministry is to identify scarcity areas, areas where there is a demand for employees and try to ensure that there is a supply of employees who can go and work and be employed in those enterprises,” he stated.
This strategic alignment involves direct collaboration with the private sector, notably through joint events and career guidance. The Ministry also plays a role in upskilling the workforce. “At the level of the Ministry, we also provide information in our employment centres for any job seekers, information about jobs available, but also the training available to get the required skills and upskilling in order to get a job in the private sector,” the Minister confirmed.
Critically, Minister Uteem acknowledged the growing demand for work-life balance, validating Maujean’s focus on Gen Z needs. “I think the world is evolving and after the unfortunate COVID pandemic, most people, not just the Gen Z… but I think other people also have now appreciated the necessity to have a balance between work and social life and family life,” he noted. In response, policy is adapting: “So increasingly today, we are talking about flexi time, we’re talking about work from home, we’re talking about having a balance between working and family life.” He committed to future regulation, concluding: “And at the level of the Ministry, we’re working on various regulations in order to encourage enterprises to allow their workers to work at home and to work on flexible time.”
Partnering for Progress: Terra Group’s Vision at Beau Plan
The decision to host the event at L’Aventure du Sucre in Beau Plan was highly symbolic, seamlessly merging the JobFair’s mission of connectivity with the host partner’s long-term vision for economic development.
Emeric Vigier de Latour, Global Communications Manager at Terra, articulated the group’s commitment to national growth through the JobFair. “I am very proud to welcome this new edition of the Job Fair and Career Hub. It is important for us, as a group that has existed for 187 years, to be part of the development of the Mauritian ecosystem, and especially of the economic development of the Mauritian ecosystem, and in particular through the creation of jobs.”
He explained how the event site directly ties into the area’s development strategy. “The Job Fair today is the Sugar Adventure in Beauplan. Beauplan is a Smart City project that was officially launched 7 years ago and is based on five pillars today, which are Live, Work, Play, Learn and Create,” he stated.
This comprehensive vision underpins Terra’s employment initiative, known as ‘Work in Beauplan.’ “And based on this pillar, Work, we have developed a philosophy called Work in Beauplan. And the idea of Work in Beauplan is to be able to allow the inhabitants of the region, from the North, but from Mauritius in general, to be able to take advantage of the professional opportunities that are related to the development of the Smart City. So it’s really about creating opportunities for everyone.”
Vigier de Latour echoed Maujean’s sentiment that the labour market has fundamentally changed, necessitating corporate adaptation. “I know that the needs today in terms of waiting for candidates have changed in the labour market and that companies need to reinvent their offer of attractiveness to candidates,” he observed. He positioned the Smart City as the solution: “And in this context, the idea is to come and offer an ecosystem, a territory, which covers all of these new needs through the creation of sports offers, through events, afterwards, exhibitions, concerts, and professional events, such as conferences, job fairs, and company-candidate meetings.”
The collaboration allowed Terra’s diverse clusters—including AgriTerra, Terragen, NovaTerra, Terra Finance, and Grays—to participate actively. Vigier de Latour concluded: “So overall, the Terra group, through these different clusters that are present at the Job Fair today, are super happy to be able to showcase their work environment and their living environment and to prepare themselves for their best days to attract Mauritian candidates from the region.”
The Interactive Design: Two Villages, One Goal
To facilitate this required shift to interaction, CareerHub structured the physical space into two synergistic zones: the Job Fair village and the AnbaPie village.
The design of the Job Fair village was intentionally non-hierarchical. Maujean and his team deliberately chose “only high tables.” This simple architectural choice was loaded with intent: ” We want the candidates and the recruiters to speak face to face, it’s not one above the other. This level ground was further supported by preparatory steps: the team “trained the candidates, the companies, especially on interaction and how to better connect with the candidates.”
The AnbaPie platform served as the cultural focal point. Known for promoting local culture and authenticity, it hosted a rich two-day programme of “podconfs hosted by experts, afterwork sessions, and live concerts,” also featuring Mauritian artisans. Maujean viewed the village as essential for “the construction of culture,” a space “promoting interaction.” He issued a directive to the participating employers—including Attitude, Emtel, Quality Beverages, CIM Finance, Concentrix, Currimjee and SWAN: “I encouraged the companies to leave their booths and come and interact in the village, to create real connections.”
The Long Game: Trust and Networking
Maujean maintained that the ultimate value of the JobFair is not securing a job on the spot but establishing a long-term network. “Coming to a job fair is all about: meet, connect, build trust,” he affirmed. He advised candidates to view the fair as an opportunity “to discover the company, to ask questions, to make sure that the company is a good fit for them. It doesn’t matter if you don’t end up with a job right away.”
For companies, the event is a strategic benchmark opportunity “to present your culture, transmit, meet, connect, build trust on the candidate side and understand what the market is looking for.” It allows recruiters to gain a comprehensive understanding of candidate expectations and career aspirations.
Maujean used a powerful sports analogy to explain the long-term impact: “You go to the gym, you do 9 hours of workout… nothing happens. You go to the gym every day, and you do a minimum of 25 minutes of workout. After a month, you start seeing results, you see change.” He concluded that candidates and companies who consistently return to this interactive environment “create a network. They build trust.”
In his final summary, Maujean defined the event’s sole purpose: “What we had hoped was to bring together people, and I think this 17th edition marked a significant step in humanising the recruitment process – providing a space for authentic connections to create a dynamic and responsive Mauritian labour market.”
