Vocational interventions for the unemployed

Abstract

South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. Considering the serious consequences of being unemployed, there is an urgent need to intervene. The first objective of this PhD thesis is to provide an overview of existing employment interventions in two low-income communities in South Africa. Findings show that information regarding programmes for the unemployed was generally uncoordinated, unavailable, and difficult to access. Stakeholders functioned in isolation and were usually unaware of each other. An alarming finding was the lack of interventions driven from a psychosocial perspective, which leaves the unemployed without the necessary resources to cope with the challenges of unemployment. One job-search intervention, called the JOBS programme, specifically aimed at developing personal resources and skills that promote re-employment, has been successfully implemented throughout the world. As a means of fulfilling the absence of psychosocial programmes in South Africa, the second aim of this study was to adapt and implement a South African version of the JOBS programme, the Qhubekela Phambili career-enhancement programme. Based on previous international studies, a framework comprising implementation and evaluation best practices was developed to apply the programme effectively in South Africa. The most prominent suggestion made was the introduction of an entrepreneurial component to suit the South African context. The last objective of this study was to adapt, implement, and evaluate the JOBS programme in the South African context. The intervention was carried out among a sample of 131 unemployed individuals, using a switched replication design. Integrity and randomisation were preserved. Repeated Measures ANOVAs provided support for the effectiveness of the intervention programme in terms of significantly enhancing participants’ job-search self-efficacy and increasing their self-esteem, though not significantly. One-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that the intervention programme had statistically significant effects on the job-search self-efficacy and self-esteem of the experimental group (compared to the control group) between the pre-test and the post-test. Lastly, participants’ levels of amotivation seemed to remain unchanged post-intervention. However, further analysis revealed that specifically, those scoring higher in amotivation benefitted considerably in terms of job-search self-efficacy, amotivation, and self-esteem. Recommendations for future research were made.