Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Universities have been producing graduates at a fairly fast rate, yet the cry for technical expertise and educated graduates. Thousands of university graduates are not employed, or they end up in industries and places that have nothing to do with their education and or qualifications. Too often the unemployed graduates they owe money loaned for studies which they are not able to repay because they are essentially unemployable, the may be because of a stagnated economic growth thereby a general high level of unemployment. The levels of entrepreneurial activities have remained low and there are no expectations of a sudden turn around for the economy. The researcher looks at one aspect of the graduate studies, specifically human resources management qualifications offered by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in the Western Cape South Africa from the period 2014 to 2017. The research was largely descriptive and partially exploratory which resulted in the use of an assorted method approach (qualitative and quantitative). The research focuses mainly on the activities of those employed as Human Resource practitioners and the expectations at their work stations. Together with this the respondents gave extra detail on what is expected of them together with duties frequently performed. Based on this, the data was captured and analysed for similarities of expectations from more than 50 organisations. The findings indicate that there is a serious disjuncture between what is taught in the class and what the industry practices and expects. Recommendations of the ideal course structure are added to the findings to enable institutions of higher learning to adjust their curricula in line with industry needs.

Thesis (MTech (Tourism and Hospitality Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / The 2011 National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS) adopted the concept of sustainable development towards decent work as a strategic objective of priority in the South African tourism industry (South African National Department of Tourism (SA.NDT), 2011a). The objective operates to address unfavourable aspects associated with work in tourism, and is relevant to tourism graduates as their susceptibility to decent work deficits contributes to a shortage of professionals with industry-related skills in the tourism industry. Over four years have passed since the SA.NDT declared priority interest on the decent work objective in 2011. Yet no noticeable progress has yet been made. This has raised a need to expand the knowledge base on decent work in tourism so as to retain skilled tourism professionals and sustainably develop the industry, as it is a priority sector for the country’s sustainable growth. The focus of this study was to establish tourism graduates’ perceptions (and experiences) of decent work in the tourism industry, as they are susceptible to decent work deficits and are abandoning the labour sector for which they created expectations and were highly trained. Due to the exploratory nature of the study, a qualitative research approach was adopted using a structured interview guide to collect primary data. The target population was limited to the 135 tourism graduates of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s BTech in Tourism Management programme, who completed their studies between the years 2010 and 2014. Stratified sampling and snowball sampling techniques were used to obtain a representative sample of 40 tourism graduates. Primary data were analysed using Leximancer software. The key findings of the study reveal the majority of the respondents surveyed to be mainly single females which reflect the population of the local tourism industry, of an average age of 27 years, and earning an average monthly salary of R7 007.35. In relation to historical race categories, Africans were the most noticeable compared to other races. The working career of the majority of these tourism graduates was on average four to five years before exiting the industry to pursue a different career. This was attributed to a predominance of precarious tourism work conditions and inaccessibility of decent work as tourism qualifications are apparently not valued in the tourism labour market. The findings underlined that work in tourism covers present financial needs and does not protect employees against possible future unemployment, illness, or old age. Tourism role players should collaborate to establish decent work focus areas as a step towards addressing unfavourable work conditions in the tourism industry. This should mitigate shortages of skilled tourism human resources. The study suggested eight decent work focus areas for addressing poor working conditions and sustainable development towards decent work in the South African tourism industry.

Submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the Master of Technology in Business Administration, Durban University of Technology, 2017. / This study investigated the concept of entrepreneurial intent within a South African Higher Education (HE) context using a sample of final year commerce students at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). The backdrop of this is within growing calls for universities to be located more within the ideal and agenda of generating future entrepreneurs for the economy. Further, arguments are made that graduates within South African Higher Education (HE) may possess the necessary theoretical knowledge but fall short concerning coming up with innovations that are responsive to the changing and diverse labour market. Entrepreneurship, thus, emerges as a possible panacea to the challenges affecting HE in South Africa. The aim of the research was to investigate factors that influence a student’s entrepreneurial intent within a South African HE context. A quantitative survey design was implemented amongst a sample of 250 respondents studying at the DUT. Correlation and regression analysis were used to test relationships between variables. The findings show a positive relationship to exist between individual risk taking propensity and variables such as a) subjective norms; b) perceived behavioural control; c) proactive personality; d) entrepreneurial education and e) student attitude towards entrepreneurial education and intentions. The findings provide a useful precursor to encouraging entrepreneurial efforts within HE in South Africa. Practitioners can use the findings of this work to come up with interventions that promote the development of an entrepreneurial culture within the South African context, especially using a vulnerable yet important cohort within the youth of the country. / M

D.Phil. (Personal and Professional Leadership) / For most graduates, entry into the working world is the start of everything they have aimed for through school and university. (Holden & Hamblett, 2007). They arrive with an intense desire to prove themselves, along with often unrealistic expectations of what the organisation will deliver. The organisation, driven by deadlines, profits, and promises to shareholders, has its own aims, and all this is situated “in a time of vast changes – changes so epochal that they may dwarf those experiences in earlier eras… changes that call for new educational forms and processes.” (Gardner, 2006, p.11). Add to this South Africa’s specific issues around quality of education, historical inequalities, and culturally disparate workforces, and you have multiple reasons for why both business and graduates could “fail to achieve their real goals” (Schein, 1964, p. 68). In order to better support graduates, it is necessary to more deeply understand the nature of the graduate transition from university to the world of work. As identity is critical to the process of adapting to new professional roles, I focused on the graduate identity journey in the first year of work (Ibarra, 1999). Using constructivist grounded theory, I tracked a group of 20 graduates over a one-year period, in a graduate development programme in a financial insitiution in Johannesburg, South Africa. Comparing the data I collected to Holmes’s (2001) Claim-affirmation Model of Emergent Identity, I provide insight into the identity issues that graduates need to overcome during this first year, how these issues impact their self-esteem, personal agency, and self-efficacy, and which coping methods they choose to employ during this time. The results suggest that by providing graduates with a liminal temporary identity, the graduate identity, they are better able to manage the transition from student identity to professional identity. The temporary graduate identity allows them to play with their identity rather than work at their identity while on the graduate programme (Ibarra & Petriglieri, 2011). In order to create the temporary graduate identity it is suggested that graduate development programmes need to be reconceptualised as rites of passage, filled with ritualised activities that enable graduates to experience communitas with other graduates on the programme (Turner, 2008). Various graduate rituals are suggested to this end. Within the graduate rite of passage, graduates need to be supported in developing their interpersonal, intrapersonal and technical skills. To help graduates develop deeper insight into self and others, a graduate self development model is proposed. In order to support the development of technical skills, rotational technical skills programmes and fixed role programmes are explored. A framework is suggested for how to develop rotational programmes that maximise the pros and minimise the cons of rotational programmes. In order for the graduate programme managers to best support graduates during their time on the programme I recommend that they need to become more sensitive to the needs of the graduates, I adapt the graduate self development model and offer this as a tool for programme managers self development. This model will help graduate programme managers to begin to uncover some of their own stereotypes and unconcious biases, and more deeply develop their coaching, mentoring and supporting skills. Many of the graduate issues that arise while on the graduate programme involve graduates and managers leaping to conclusions based on faulty assumptions about each other. This often results in an impasse between graduates and their managers. I suggest that graduate programme managers take on the added role of mediator in order to point out to graduates, and their managers, how they might be misconstruing each other, therefore helping to avert some of the issues graduates experience. The findings of this study therefore have implications for graduate programme managers, and provides insight into how to better design and develop future graduate programmes.

Graduate unemployment, more specifically the continued inability of young people to make a successful transition from institutions of higher learning to labour markets, remains a key concern and one of the most pressing socio-economic issues facing South Africa. Of similar concern, has been the inordinate length of time it takes for graduates (particularly black graduates) to acquire employment. This research study was undertaken in an attempt to understand employment trends among black graduates: its specific aim is to determine, the length of time it takes for black graduates to acquire employment after graduation. As a secondary aim the study also seeks to determine the underlying causes of long-lasting unemployment. The study investigated the employment circumstances involving a sample of 40 graduate participants from Motherwell Township: it was discovered that it took from 1-3 years for the respondents to acquire employment. The study also found that relative to their male counterparts it took much longer for female graduate participants to acquire employment. It also emerged that the type of qualification possessed by the graduates was a determining factor in the likelihood of their gaining employment timeously.

Douglas College Business Program students have graduated for the past twenty-two years. This study was undertaken to examine three specific aspects of the 'impact' that the Douglas College educational experience has had on these business graduates. Impact, as defined by Alfred (1982), is the sum total of outcomes, changes and benefits produced by a college. Through the use of Astin's model of the components of the process of higher education, specific outcomes related to employment, finances and further educational development were investigated. A survey was conducted of graduates from selected business programs from the years 1981 and 1986. Analyses were carried out to determine outcomes of having graduated from a Douglas College business program. It was found that the Douglas College business program graduates experienced positive outcomes related to employment, finances, and pursuit of further education. Graduates perceived that the benefits related to employment were more important than other benefits related to their educational experience. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

An exploratory study was conducted to discover significant events and feelings attached to those events during the experience of unemployment for university graduates under 25 years of age. Twelve university graduates of mixed sex, under the age of 25 were interviewed. The phenomenological/critical incident methodology adapted by Amundson and Borgen (1984) was utilized. The experience was found to be comprised of two segments: the initial holiday period, and the downward trend. Idiosyncratically occurring positive and negative critical incidents were identified. Job search activities were found to be most closely aligned with middle class professionals rather than less educated youth findings. The subjects were found to channel their energy into new areas of interest and activity, particularly further education in spite of feelings of disillusionment. These results may aid counsellors in understanding the experience of unemployed university graduates, and lead to more effective therapeutic interventions for this population. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Field research was used to document the psychological and contextual experience of job insecurity for 15 graduate women in jobs with limited tenure and protection. Single, hour-long, intensive focused interviews were used, employing a projective technique. Transcripts of taped interviews were analyzed for factors associated with positive and negative emotional shifts. Factors were categorized and grouped into domains, which included: the nature of the subjects' job insecurity; effects on work performance, work relations, emotional and physical health, finances, leisure, and, personal and family life. The experience was shown to fit a transition model of loss and adaption to change. Major stressors were uncertainty, financial fears, pressure to perform, loss of trust, job search and career fears. Typical cognitions included: self doubt; feeling unappreciated, disillusioned, powerless and isolated. Cynicism and feeling compromised were less common reactions. Work relations, and work performance were generally adversely affected as were leisure activities and family life. Financial retrenchment was common. All subjects reported stress and anxiety; some reported depressive symptoms. Thirteen coping strategies were identified. Cognitive coping was prominent, in particular, denial-like processes used to maintain optimism. "Good coping" and "poor coping" profiles were developed from the data. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The effect of social capital on labor market outcomes is a key concern in sociological studies. Even though there are extensive studies on this topic, with the worldwide expansion of higher education, insufficient scholarly efforts have so far been devoted to understanding access to social capital in the educational setting and labor market impact of social capital for well-educated individuals. Moreover, studies on social capital and migration tend to focus on the role played by social capital on migration decisions and outcomes, contingency impact of social capital on migrants' labor market outcomes are not well understood. To fill the knowledge gap, this research is to examine undergraduates' social capital accumulation and mobilization on campus, and the associated outcomes for their job seeking, with the particular focus on 1) the impact of macro institutions on migrant students' social capital accumulation and mobilization; 2) contingency impact of social capital on labor market outcomes. Combining primary data from in-depth interviews in Tianjin and secondary data collected in Nanjing, China, I examine the different processes of social capital accumulation and mobilization between local and migrant students on campus, and associated labor market outcomes between local and returned migrant students. Findings of this study suggest that university provides an important context for undergraduates to establish social ties and accumulate social capital. By attending higher education institutions, especially elite ones, students gain opportunities to build exclusive social connections on campus. However, opportunities to accumulate social capital on campus are highly structured between local and migrant students because of the household registration system. Moreover, data from in-depth interviews have demonstrated that migrant students suffer disadvantaged capacities to mobilize social capital compared to their local counterparts. The household registration system deprives migrant populations of access to some local employment opportunities, such as government and government-affiliated organizations, migrant students suffer from weaker job information and influence when mobilizing their social capital. Further, by analyzing survey data from Nanjing, it has verified the institutional contingency impact of social capital upon the household registration system between local and returned migrant students. Both total and university-based social capital increases local students' chance to get a desirable job but does not do so for returned migrant students. The central argument of the study is that institutional constraints, such as the household registration system, could lead to different capacities for the accessibility and mobilization of social capital among local students, migrant students, and returned migrant students, finally leading to differential labor market outcomes in Chinese cities.

This dissertation consists of three quantitative studies analyzing educational policies and programs that help to improve college readiness, college success, as well as the transition from college to the labor market. The first chapter studies the impact of raising the bar for high school math on college readiness and success. The chapter examines the causal effects of recent state-level reforms increasing the high school graduation math requirement on high school graduation and college outcomes. Using nationally-representative survey data, the study exploits variation in the reform timing across states in a staggered difference-in-difference framework. Findings indicate that raising the high school graduation requirement in math coursework is a potentially effective policy tool to prepare students better for college, but highlight racial disparities in the effectiveness of the math reforms. The second chapter discusses experiential learning through work-based courses at 2-year and 4-year colleges. Experiential learning is a critical component for a smooth transition from higher education to the workforce. In this chapter, I apply an innovative text mining technique to identify and analyze work-based courses from transcript data. The study examines patterns and post-degree labor market outcomes of taking work-based courses at college, and has important implications for colleges and policymakers to better support students on gaining from the courses. The third chapter estimates heterogeneity in labor market returns to Master’s degrees. Using an individual fixed effects model with rich administrative data, the study provides up-to-date causal evidence on labor market returns to Master’s degrees, and examines heterogeneity in the returns by field area, student characteristics, and the macroeconomic condition in which students graduate and enter the labor market. Findings show that obtaining a Master’s degree increases quarterly earnings, but the return varies widely by field of study. And economic downturns appear to reduce but not eliminate the positive return to a Master’s degree.