Employability Distress: Factors Affecting ICT Graduates’ Employability and Work Integration in the Workspace

Abstract

There has been an ongoing debate on the subject of graduate unemployability in South Africa and the extent to which it has affected academic graduates. The growing consensus regarding intensifying levels of graduate employability distress today is explicitly supported theoretically in a number of research studies. This is despite the considerable efforts that have historically been made concerning the graduate labour force and their probable ramifications in the context of South Africa’s far-reaching labour market issues. A number of scholars both in the past and the present have identified several issues emerging from the heterogeneity of the quality of education, graduates’ capabilities and skills competencies, higher education institutions’ involvement in the industries and employers’ requirements for employment. This study aimed to explore the views that graduates conceive about employability and stress, reason for their unemployment and identify the factor that causes them to be unemployed and decisively suggest way to address these challenges. A quantitative approach and a questionnaire were used. A total of 195 questionnaires from graduates/students in the College of Business and Economics were recovered and usable. The findings reveal a paradox in the increased level of ICT graduate unemployment and skills mismatch and shortages. This has been attributed mostly to organisational changes which may have given rise to misalignment between the skills that graduates currently have and those that employers seek from graduates. Findings suggest that the kind of education obtained, graduates’ incapability to apply the skills received and work experience are factors hindering employability.