This week, Up4Debate takes note that students all over South Africa are now reaching the halfway point in their final year of study. Many of these students are beginning to confront the prospect of life beyond graduation. Will they be able to find employment?
This week, Up4Debate takes note that students all over South Africa are now reaching the halfway point in their final year of study. Many of these students are beginning to confront the prospect of life beyond graduation. Will they be able to find employment?
Is there demand for their degree in the marketplace? And will the programmes that they are completing prepare them adequately for the working world?
To discuss these questions in our studio, we invited Qondakele Sompondo, Manager of Alumni Relations at Rhodes University; Professor Sioux McKenna from the Centre of Higher Education Research Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) and Dr McDonald Kanyangale, senior lecturer at the Rhodes Business School.
Sioux McKenna: "Often when students start out they might have one idea of what they’re going to be doing and then by the time they enter the real world of business they find themselves doing different things. A good degree would prepare them for that kind of flexibility."
Macdonald Kanyangale: "Whether you are in the sciences or humanities, you definitely need soft skills and it is that element of soft skills that is missing in graduates. Programmes like service learning provide space for graduates to develop those skills."
Qondakele Sompondo: "Maybe the focus of producing university graduates might not necessarily be what the country needs right now. We have a backlog of housing … you need specific skills. So maybe the focus shouldn’t be on higher education but FETs".
