M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Thesis (D Com (Human Resources Management))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

School guidance and counselling is a programme that is complementary to the education process and is seen as a support service for the pupil. However, owing to the apartheid policies of the South African government, all pupils did not have equal access to guidance services. In a post-apartheid South Africa it is anticipated that a unitary education system would emerge to provide equal access to education for all South African pupils and this implies that previous imbalances that existed would have to be addressed. In this study the present state of guidance and counselling services in Natal was investigated and policy options to redress past inequities and to make school guidance and counselling services a reality for all South African pupils, within the context of limited resources were explored.

Career psychology in South Africa has traditionally been constituted by the vocabularies, assessment methods, counselling practices and research objectives of the modernist-positivist paradigm. This paradigm has produced a rich but disparate and fragmented range of career theories, research perspectives and career education practices that have been limited in their consideration and integration of the broad range of contextual factors that influence the career development of South African adolescents in unique ways. This limitation has had, and still has, the potential of promoting prescriptive and disqualifying constructions of career development for South African youth. A search for alternatives to traditional modernist-positivist understandings of career has led, however, to a further fragmentation of the career field into what can broadly be termed qualitative and quantitative approaches. This twofold fragmentation, as well as the dynamic complexity of the world of work in the twenty-first century, has inspired this study’s investigation of an integrating framework that employs a wide range of career theoretical perspectives in the service of constructing experience-near accounts of the complex and fluid interrelationship between individual career makers and their specific social, environmental and societal contexts. The present study has therefore employed the Systems Theory Framework (STF) in investigating and co-constructing representations of the career development of a group of South African adolescents in a way that acknowledges their unique systems of career influence and discursive contexts. The research adopted an exploratory-descriptive design in collaborating with the participants in this investigation. In the first phase of the study a sample of 70 grade 11 male and female adolescents from middle socioeconomic status environments were invited to complete the My Systems of Career Influences (MSCI) workbook in re-presenting systemic constructions of their career development. Tesch’s model of qualitative content analysis and frequency counts has been used to re-present that process to you in this text. In the second phase of the study the researcher collaborated with one participant in a systemic narrative career counselling process. During this process an account of the participant’s career narrative was co-constructed in conversations guided by a poststructural narrative approach to career counselling and the MSCI’s structuring of the participant’s complex systems of influence. The co-constructed account was critically examined according to Parker’s approach to discourse analysis. The second phase investigated how the counselling and research processes had positioned the participant in relation to her influential systems and their privileged discourses of career development. The study is particularly pertinent to a growing need for the development of respectful, critical and non-discriminatory career assessment, career research and career counselling collaborations between professionals and career makers navigating the unique and diverse South African context.

No abstract available. / Dissertation (MEd (Educational Guidance and Counselling))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

M.A. (Social Work) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the career decision making of grade 12 learners at a rural high school in Limpopo. The world of work has changed and there is a need for young people entering this world of work to be well matched and have the necessary skills to cope with the challenges it brings. Informed career decision-making is therefore essential. The study was exploratory and qualitative in nature, conducted within an interpretive paradigm. A purposeful sample consisting of 18 grade 12 learners at a rural high school in Limpopo was utilised. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and data were analysed using the thematic analysis. The study findings identified the factors considered by the learners under study in career decision-making as well as the challenges they face, when making career related decisions. The results were integrated with literature and theory and finally recommendations to aid the learners’ in their career decision-making. Recommendations for future research were also made. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The advent of democracy in South Africa has brought about fundamental changes in the spheres of governance. One of these changes is the transformation of the public service. One of the constitutional imperatives of the country requires all government departments to be representative. The Department of Defence and in particular, the South African Navy (SA Navy) as part of the public service, is also expected to transform to ensure representivity. The SA Navy is not yet representative, specifically in terms of the African composition. The study seeks to establish the extent and knowledge of black youth about careers in the SA Navy. To achieve this, a questionnaire was circulated to various schools for completion. The findings indicate that black youth, specifically those from rural areas are unaware of the available career opportunities in the SA Navy. This could be a major cause of the current equity situation within the department. / Public Administration / M. Admin. (Public Administration)

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Technology: Nursing, Durban University of Technology, 2014. / Globally there is recognition of a health workforce crisis characterised by critical shortages, migration, and an uneven geographical distribution of health professionals. The Nursing Strategy for South Africa records that for many decades nursing has been a career of choice for South Africans from all sectors of society (Department of Health 2008: 11). That has changed as nursing has become less appealing to learners. This raises questions as to the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of learners towards the nursing profession. Aim of the study : The aim of the study was to determine factors influencing high school learners towards nursing as a career. Methodology : A descriptive cross-sectional quantitative and qualitative design was used to guide the study. The study was conducted in two high schools that were purposely sampled; the population comprised of high school learners from the two schools. Questionnaires were used to collect data from Grades 10 and 11. Life Orientation subject teachers were interviewed during data collection. Quantitative data was analysed by using SPSS. Qualitative data was analysed by using thematic analysis. Results : The findings of this study revealed that learners had inadequate knowledge of nursing. Interviews with teachers showed that this inadequate knowledge by learners could be associated with a lack of active involvement of the Department of Health in promoting nursing as a career.

M.Cur. (Professional Nursing Science) / Career planning of learner nurses, has been identified as an important tool to improve the retention of nurses in the health care system (Department of Health, 2008:12). First year learner nurses leave the nursing profession because they experience dissatisfaction in nursing as the career of choice. Miller and Marvin [ca 2008] state that career planning leads to greater ownership of work roles, taking initiative, and ongoing professional development. People involved in career planning are better collaborators, more likely to get along with their co-workers and supervisors, and more likely stay in and add value to the organization. Little has been done to improve career orientation of nurses, which has been identified as an important tool to improve nursing in the health care system (Department of Health, 2008:12). After six months of training, first year learner nurses starts to leave the nursing profession because they experience dissatisfaction in nursing as the career of choice. This problem is assigned to a lack of career orientation at nursing training colleges. It was unclear how first year learner nurses experience nursing as a career of choice, after having been exposed to the academic environment and nursing practice setting for six months in nursing. The central statement of the study was that learner nurses after entering nursing as a career of choice could be orientated on career planning that requires a career plan with guidelines or actions to be followed during their first year of nursing. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of first year learner nurses on nursing as a career of choice with the intention of describing guidelines on career planning for learner nurses at a nursing college in the Johannesburg Region. Purposive sampling was used and all (52) first year learner nurses who have been in training for more than six months at a nursing college were selected as a target population. .Interviewing by means of narrative story writing, in-depth individual unstructured questioning of the participants, focus group interviews was conducted until saturation of data was achieved.