| dc.description.abstract | South Africa suffers from persistently high unemployment, and youth unemployment is seen as one of South Africa's greatest socio-economic threats. Workplaces today require highly qualified and skilled employees who can deal with and adapt to the dynamic, fast-paced and demanding labour market. Therefore, employability skills are critical to securing a job and improving one's well-being. Currently, there are few published studies on the self-perceived employability of tertiary students in South Africa. The lack of scholarly research on student employability and self-perceived employability in South Africa and the role that higher education institutions can play in student employability led to an attempt to fill this gap. Therefore, the aim of this research study was to explore the self-perceived employability among final-year undergraduate students at a higher education institution in South Africa.
This study was conducted within a positivistic research paradigm. The ontological approach of objectivism and the epistemology of empiricism were used to inform the study. The methodology that was used involved a literature review and an empirical study. A quantitative approach was adopted for the empirical study using quantitative methods and techniques for sampling, data collection and data analysis. The research setting was limited to one higher education institution in South Africa; the institution was selected by using convenient sampling. The target population for this study comprised all final-year undergraduate students at the various campuses of the university. Data for the study were collected using a standardised, web-based, self-administered and coded questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, Spearman's rank-order correlations, independent sample t-tests, ANOVA tests, and effect sizes were used to analyse the data.
The results of the exploratory factor analyses confirmed the validity and reliability of the Self-Perceived Employability, Ambition and University Commitment scales. Based on the mean scores obtained for “self-belief”, “university reputation” and “external labour market”, it can be deduced that, although the students had positive perceptions about their skills, abilities, academic performance and their performance in interviews (self-belief), they were not that positive about the university’s reputation and about job opportunities in the external labour market. The results further showed that respondents scored higher on the internal dimensions than on the external dimensions of self-perceived employability. This could be an indication that respondents were aware of the conditions in the South African labour market, which are characterised by high unemployment and limited employment opportunities, especially for young people. Such a trend
can result in high mental and physical health problems and adverse changes that discourage and weaken confidence in employment prospects after graduation as it becomes virtually impossible to find employment.
The results of the independent sample t-tests, ANOVA’s, effect sizes and Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficients revealed an association between selected socio-demographic variables (gender, age, campus, mode of study, race, faculty of study, geographical location of origin, parents/guardian's occupation and educational level and financial support, ability to provide in household needs and religiosity) and self-perceived employability, ambition and university commitment. The study showed that Bourdieu’s theory of practice and associated concepts of field, capital and habitus is useful in understanding and explaining the association between the socio-demographic variables used in the study and final-year undergraduate students’ self-perceived employability.
From the study, it is clear that various measures need to be taken by higher education institutions in South Africa to increase and strengthen students' employability in order to improve career opportunities given the high unemployment rate in the country and to, consequently, promote economic stability in the country. | en_US |
