The implications of the rapid political, social, economic and technological changes at present occurring both in South Africa and internationally demand a review of the traditional approach to university training with regard to its relevance in terms of preparing students both for life in general and for the successful practising of a future career in particular. The Information Age requires that a shift take place from the teaching only of the mastery skills of previous eras to the encompassing of life or core skills that can be adapted to changing circumstances. As it cannot be assumed that students will acquire these skills incidentally or vicariously, they need to be consciously and deliberately taught in order to provide graduates with the ability to adjust to and cope with the uncertainties of the future. Universities as a whole need to become involved in an alternative approach to higher education. The aims of this study are:<ul><li> To employ a life-skills questionnaire that may be used as a diagnostic medium designed to ascertain if and where problem areas lie with regard to university entrants so as to facilitate addressing of said problem areas</li><li> To ascertain the needs and expectations of both employers and private practitioners in order to identify where the training of graduates falls short of the above with respect to life skills, and to establish what steps both employers and the self-employed are having to take to remedy the situation</li><li> To suggest the concept of relevant Guidance Support as a means to both address and redress problems surrounding issues of insufficient training of graduates with respect to life or core skills. </li></ul> The study comprises a title and concept elucidation, methodological justification, formulation of the problem and research hypotheses, an exposition of the aim of the study and an outline of the programme. Perspective is gained on the level of life skills present in university entrants via the presentation of a Life Skills Questionnaire and its possible uses are discussed. A survey of the needs of both employers and the self-employed, comprising a literature review, a Life Skills Questionnaire aimed at deans of faculties and councils and personal or telephonic interviews, revealed that graduates are insufficiently prepared to meet the demands of the world of work in terms of life competencies and skills. The concept of Guidance Support, concomitant with the notion of establishing a guidance support department is explored. The value of considering such a concept is covered, followed by a discussion of the functions and the advantages to a university of a guidance support department. The study contains a number of recommendations with regard to promoting the training of graduates sufficiently skilled to meet the demands of the world of work. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

This exploratory study examined the different tourism market development strategies that tourism Multinational Corporations (MNCs) implement in their operations in African host countries. It empirically investigated the existence of any relationships between tourism MNCs’ market development strategies and the “Needs and Expectations of African host countries.” Also, it investigated the influences of external environmental factors on tourism MNCs’ tourism market strategic choice. Its sample population were top management executives of tourism MNCs‘ with operations in the African market. The unit of analysis was the corporation. The sample frame was an exhaustive list of tourism MNCs with operations in the African region. The initial sample size was 106 tourism MNCs’ executives. Thirty-seven of them responded to a mail in survey questionnaire. Two of the questionnaires were discarded due to numerous missing data. Thus, there were 35 usable questionnaires for data analysis, which is a response rate of 33%. The study results identified relationships between the integration of Multinational Corporations’ (MNCs) tourism market development strategies with the needs and expectations of developing African host countries, and their successful performance in those host countries in terms of growth in operations and profitability. It revealed that significant differences exist among the market development strategies on the factors of needs and expectations of African host countries. The significant factors were community participation, local entrepreneurship, and job and national security. Also, the economic development factor was observed to be partially significant. This study also identified free trade economy in the African host countries as a significant factor on the influence of external environment. The framework of this study is embedded in the underlying theories of international strategic management, international business, international development, and needs and expectations. The study’s final conceptual model depicts the significant factors of African host countries’ needs and expectations, the tourism market development strategies, an integration of the two concepts and the resultant tourism MNCs successful performance. This research study investigated MNCs in all sectors of the tourism industry. And the findings have shown that for the tourism MNCs to be successful in their African host countries, they should be sensitive to the identified sectors, namely economic development, community participation, local entrepreneurship, and job and national security measures. Also, they should exert more efforts in exploring African free trade economies for their business locations in the region. / Ph. D.