Skilling students to land work
THE festive season is traditionally a time to reflect on the year that was, and to turn your focus towards prospects for the future. For graduates from our higher-education institutions, the time has inevitably come to focus on entering the world of work.
But getting suitable employment is not always easy and straightforward. The unemployment rate in South Africa still hovers dangerously high, at around 26%.
Statistics SA recently revealed that the vast majority of this figure is made up of young people. However, it is clear that academic qualifications make a considerable difference, as the graduate unemployment rate for those aged 25-34 drops to 10.2%, further decreasing to 4.7% for those aged 35-64.
But there’s still much that can be done to improve the employability of our graduates.
The QS World University Rankings recently published its latest Graduate Employability Rankings, which showed the universities that produced the most effective and competent graduates.
Five factors were taken into account:
Employer reputation: Employers identify which universities have the most competent, innovative and effective graduates.
Alumni outcomes: An analysis of which universities are producing “world-changing individuals”. Employer/faculty partnerships: University collaboration with employers and work-placement partnerships. Employer/student connections: The number of employers who have been actively present on a university campus.
Graduate employment rate: The proportion of graduates in full-time work, 12 months after graduating. It’s concerning to note that not one South African university has made it into the top 100.
Interventions are clearly needed to create workplace readiness. For the past few years there has been an increased focus on efforts to improve the employability of graduates.
At the University of the Free State we introduced a compulsory module called UFS101 for all students a few years ago. In the first semester we focus on academic skills to be a successful student, while the second semester focuses on success beyond university.
Students learn about interview skills, CV writing, what employers are looking for, the effect of social media on employability, and more.
The university’s department of career services offers further workreadiness programmes and facilitates exposure to potential employers through company presentations, webinars and career fairs.
Through our Centre for Teaching and Learning we make sure that students’ career aspirations line up with their study fields. Students are briefed on fields where a skills-need exists, or where there is an oversupply of job-seeking graduates.
The Business School has identified the main drivers of not being workplace-ready as a lack of life skills, managerial skills and leadership skills.
They’ve consequently started teaming up with specific sectors – such as the pharmaceutical industry – offering short learning programmes to specially recruited unemployed graduates.
These graduates are placed at host companies for five months of work experience.
These and other interventions and initiatives seem to be paying off. The university has just completed its first Graduate Exit Survey, and 74% of the 2017 graduate cohort who indicated that they hoped to be working after graduation were already working or had accepted a job offer.