The purpose of this research was to investigate the efficacy of EPWP employment in enhancing workers’ subsequent employability once they exit these programmes. The study also examined the conditions of EPWP employment to glean evidence about whether or not jobs offered in these programmes are distinguishable from other forms of casual employment preponderant within the South African labour market. Through the use of structured interviews complemented by individual diaries conducted with thirty-two former participants of the Modimola Integrated EPWP in the North West province this study reveals that public works employment is not distinguishable from other forms of “precarious” employment when evaluated against the general indicators of labour market security, minimum wages and benefits, working time, training, and union representation, inter alia. Contrary to the documented policy expectation that EPWP employment will enhance workers’ skills and labour market exposure and thereby improve their subsequent labour market performance, this study reveals that public works employment was not successful in enhancing participants’ access to other employment opportunities. This study found a broad unemployment level of 97% amongst former participants of the Modimola EPWP almost five years after they went through the programme’s training component. The principal reason given by all the respondents was overwhelmingly lack of employment opportunities that required a recipe of skills they had acquired during participation in this programme.

The 21st century has seen nations becoming more competitive yet ironically more interdependent as their future becomes even more dependent on the knowledge, skills, and resourcefulness of its people, creating new opportunities and difficulties for education, (Power, 2000). The education-work-society interdependency has therefore become more important now than ever. It is also because of this triad-interdependency that tertiary education‟s relevance to industry needs has become a crucial issue in societal development. The ever changing needs of South Africa, the unemployment rate, introduction of new technologies and many other ripple effects of globalization have seen more and more pressure mounting on the South African education system as more and more people try to ensure that the education system answers the crucial challenges of the country today and tomorrow.The discussion below provides a detailed account of the context, in which this discourse on curriculum relevance takes place, highlighting some relevant cornerstones of the Reconstruction and Development Programme, (RDP, 1994). Furthermore, this chapter exposes the key research questions and significance of the study. The subsequent chapter 2 gives an account of what other scholars have said on issues of curriculum relevance, development and the South African Higher Education system. Chapter 3 explains the research methodology as a research process used to investigate the problem in question. In this research study the researcher uses both quantitative and qualitative design (online surveys of three groups, these are the graduates, prospective employers and the lecturers). The analysis is based on quantitative data and further substantiated through qualitative data analysis. The subsequent chapter tabulates and lays out the results according to the surveys. The final chapter discusses the findings and makes future recommendations.

This research focuses on the relationship between employability attributes, organisational commitment and retention factors within the context of staff retention in the 21st century workplace. A cross-sectional quantitative research approach was followed, and a probability stratified sample (N = 311) of mainly black and female participants participated in the study. A canonical correlation analysis indicated a significant overall relationship between the employability attributes/organisational commitment canonical variate and the retention factor canonical variate. Inferential statistics revealed significant differences between ethnicity, gender, age, job category and qualification level regarding these variables. The study also confirmed a positive relationship between employability attributes, organisational commitment and retention factors. Recommendations are made for use by human resource professionals in terms of the retention of valuable staff. / Human Resource Management / M. Com. (Human Resources Management)

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration (Entrepreneurship)))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / Graduates face challenges to secure relevant employment; even worse, obtaining a qualification does not guarantee employment or employability. The labour market no longer only searches for a qualification but also for a set of skills. Graduates are required to improve upon proficiencies that would qualify for positive performance and would benefit the employer to use for business purposes. In addition, scarcities of expertise, besides working environment knowledge, indicate that businesses are unwilling to employ graduates, hiring more experienced people as an option. This research has studied the developing concept of social entrepreneurship; but principally examined the context in which social entrepreneurship can be used to improve graduate employability. A quantitative method was used with the help of a structured questionnaire in order to achieve a high level of reliability in relation to data analysis. The subjects for this research comprised 187 social entrepreneurs who are formally registered as non-profit organisations within Cape Town, and are registered on the Western Cape Charity South Africa database. The data collected for this study were analysed and illustrated using tables, bars and pie charts. It is hoped that this study will not merely add to the knowledge of social business enterprise, but also disclose the likely roles that social entrepreneurs can play to improve graduate employability. / National Research Foundation(NRF)

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters in Management Sciences: Tourism and Hospitality Management, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / With the accelerating growth in the tourism industry and its anchorage in the service-industry, the utilisation of people is a valuable resource for a tourism organisation. There are increased pressures on educational institutions from the government and the tourism industry to produce employable graduates. Thus, it remains imperative that tourism organisations have access to a pool of human resources that possess the required knowledge, skills and attitudes. As a result, educational institutions build workplace learning (WPL) into tourism curricula to ensure the transferability of skills and a smoother transition for all stakeholders into the tourism industry. This study set out to determine the impact WPL has on a tourism student’s employability in the tourism industry. The literature highlights a number of key issues hindering the success of WPL for tourism graduate employability. These include, a lack of alignment of curriculum, supervision challenges and partnerships with the tourism industry. Using a mixed methodological approach comprising both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, comparisons among stakeholders’ perceptions and attitudes were conducted. The stakeholders are: tourism graduates from 2011-2014, academic supervisors and workplace supervisors in the tourism industry. Stakeholders’ perceptions of WPL structured the depth and sharpened understanding of the success as well as issues hindering the successful implementation of WPL and consequent unemployment. Among the main challenges were the placement of students and the inadequate feedback between stakeholders. The empirical findings underpinned effective communication as imperative in developing and maintaining quality partnerships for WPL. Among the many knock on benefits is the successful transfer of skills to tourism students. It is hoped that this research will contribute to the dearth of literature on tourism WPL and tackle salient gaps in tourism employability. / M

In a rapid changing environment mining companies have to change the way in which they do business, while employees have to manage their careers and ensure they are multi-skilled. Organisations are looking to employ individuals who are career driven, highly adaptable and flexible and display the necessary employability skills. The main purpose of this study was to determine if any relationship exists between the different factors of graduate employability and work performance in the mining industry in South Africa. A cross-sectional quantitative research approach was followed. A simple random sample was drawn from graduate male and female employees between the ages of 18 – 30 years with any post-matric qualification employed in the mining industry in South Africa. Through the process of exploratory factor analysis, six graduate employability factors and four work performance factors were identified. The graduate employability factors included career self-management drive, cultural competence, career resilience, emotional literacy, career literacy and self-efficacy. The work performance factors included the supervisor role, employee role, recognition and organisation support. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted. The results indicated a relationship between graduate employability and work performance. Strong, positive correlations were found between graduate employability and work performance with career self-management drive being the strongest predictor of work performance. Recommendations for the mining industry focused on how employability could be enhanced to improve work performance. / Human Resource Management / M. Com. (Human Resource Management)

This study investigated the relationship between the self-directedness (as measured by the Adult Learner Self-Directedness Scale) and employability attributes (as measured by the Student Employablity Attributes Scale) of adult learners enrolled at a South African distance learning higher education institution. Correlational and inferential statistical analyses were carried out in order to realise the research objective. A stratified random sample of 1 102 mainly black and female participants participated in the study. The research indicated self-directedness to be a significant positive predictor of employability attributes and also revealed significant differences between the gender, race and age groups regarding these variables. Recommendations are suggested for use by university lecturers and human resource development professionals. / Human Resource Management / M. Comm. (Human Resource Management)

This study investigated the relationship between the self-directedness (as measured by the Adult Learner Self-Directedness Scale) and employability attributes (as measured by the Student Employablity Attributes Scale) of adult learners enrolled at a South African distance learning higher education institution. Correlational and inferential statistical analyses were carried out in order to realise the research objective. A stratified random sample of 1 102 mainly black and female participants participated in the study. The research indicated self-directedness to be a significant positive predictor of employability attributes and also revealed significant differences between the gender, race and age groups regarding these variables. Recommendations are suggested for use by university lecturers and human resource development professionals. / Human Resource Management / M. Comm. (Human Resource Management)

Thesis (MTech (Public Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019. / A socio-economic problem presently facing South Africa is the rate of youth unemployment, which is among the highest in the world. The South African Government has been involved in a number of initiatives, together with the advancement of a labour-intensive Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in order to reduce unemployment and poverty. The EPWP was initiated in 2004 with the aim to place the jobless into productive work in the public sector social services where these EPWP beneficiaries are provided with relevant training and transfer of appropriate skills. However, the EPWP only creates temporary work opportunities that have limited influence on the lives of the beneficiaries. The main objective of the study was to examine the performance of the Youth Work Project (YWP) as an EPWP in a selected department of the Western Cape Provincial Government in order to determine its sustainability of job creation. The secondary aims of the study were to explain the process of the YWP as implemented through the EPWP by a selected department of the Western Cape Provincial Government. A third objective was to examine whether the Public Works employment opportunities enhance subsequent employability of participants once they exit this programme. Fourthly, recommendations was forwarded as to how best the EPWP can be used as a tool for helping unemployed youth with a permanent work opportunity. The sample frame computed of thirteen (13) individuals, therefore purposive sampling was considered the most suitable technique to use in this study. The semistructured interviews were conducted with five (5) management officials responsible for the EPWP and unstructured questionnaires were administered to eight (8) available EPWP beneficiaries placed at a selected department of the Western Cape Provincial Government.

Recent studies have shown that graduates from historically White universities (HWUs) experience better labour market outcomes than graduates from historically Black universities (HBUs). This is a result of the legacy of apartheid which promoted racial inequality in all spheres of South African society, more especially in higher education and the labour market. Post-1994, government dedicated large amounts for the restructuring of the higher education sector of South Africa in order to level out the playing field. However, graduates from HWUs still experience better labour market success than graduates from HBUs. That said, there is limited information about the labour market outcomes and experiences of graduates from a former White university (especially graduates from Rhodes University). Therefore, the central aim of this dissertation is to show that graduates from a historically White university (Rhodes University) experience varying and unequal outcomes in the South African labour market on account of (among other factors) their chosen fields of study, race and sex. This study is informed by the heterodox labour market approach, which is partly inspired by the critical realist account of the labour market. As a result, this theoretical framework allowed the researcher to use the Labour Market Segmentation (LMS) theory as a tool to inform this analysis. The study has adopted a quantitative survey design and has incorporated some of the key methodological lessons learned from the collection of international graduate tracer studies. The findings from this study indicated that ‘field of study’ is a strong determiner of the outcomes of Rhodes graduates in the labour market. This was visible in the persistence of a skills bias towards commerce and science graduates. Evidently, even when we controlled for race and sex, graduates from the commerce and science faculties experience better labour market outcomes than humanities graduates. This is a result of a skills biased South African economy, which has a higher demand for certain skills over others. However, the findings from this study also show evidence of pre-labour market discrimination and inequality (based on race and sex) in the supply-side institutions such as the family, schooling and university. The findings also show continuities and discontinuities of labour market discrimination (based on race and sex) in the outcomes of Rhodes graduates in the South African labour market. More importantly, this dissertation indicates that Rhodes graduates experience varying outcomes in the labour market as a result of (among other factors) their chosen fields of study, race and sex.