GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY AS AN INDICATOR OF INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS:

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GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY AS AN INDICATOR OF
INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS A Case Study of
NMMU Prof Heather Nel and Dr Annemarie
Barnard Strategic and Institutional Planning
Unit Centre for Planning and Institutional
Development
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PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

• The purpose of this study was to analyse
  perceptions of NMMU graduates employers with
  respect to
• Knowledge, attributes skills contributing to
  graduate employability
• Extent to which NMMU qualifications/programmes
  equip graduates with required knowledge,
  attributes skills
• The benefits of experiential learning
• Aspects impacting on graduate employability

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CONTEXT Effectiveness of higher education

• The growing number of unemployed graduates
  globally is challenging the effectiveness of HE
  institutions in providing the requisite education
  for national development economic growth.
• Graduate unemployment in SA increased by almost
  50 between 1995 2005 fastest growing
  unemployment rate among all education cohorts
  (MacGregor, 2007)
• Higher education has a responsibility to its
  principal stakeholders students to equip them
  with more than a profound knowledge of an
  academic subject area. Higher education has a
  responsibility to students that includes
  encouraging and enabling them to develop, through
  their academic study, a range of explicit
  attributes, which allow them to subsequently
  engage effectively in the world of work (Stewart
  Knowles, 2000 2)

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CONTEXT Higher education efficiency
effectiveness

• Efficiency
• Is higher education doing things right?
• Examples of efficiency indicators (inputs
  process outputs)
• Participation rates
• Student staff ratios
• Expenditure per student
• Graduation rates
• Research outputs
• Effectiveness
• Is higher education doing the right things right?
  What difference is it making?
• Examples of effectiveness indicators
  (impact/outcomes)
• Graduate employability employment rates
• HE participation/graduation rates compared to
  national GDP
• Educational attainment levels of population

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On inputs and outputs/outcomes
students
graduates
efficiency
graduate employability
student progress (credits)
research outputs
educational attainment of population
staff
funding (public private)
national regional development/ economic growth
service outreach
attrition
student/ staff satisfaction
services
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CONCEPTUALISING GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY

• Employability is taken as
• a set of achievements skills, understandings
  and personal attributes that makes graduates
  more likely to gain employment and be successful
  in their chosen occupations, which benefits
  themselves, the workforce, the community and the
  economy
• (Higher Education Council, Australia, 1992)

• For the purposes of this study, graduate
  employability was conceptualised as
• a set of achievements skills, understandings
  and personal attributes that makes graduates
  more likely to gain employment and be successful
  in their chosen occupations, which benefits
  themselves, the workforce, the community and the
  economy (Higher Education Council, Australia,
  1992)

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LITERATURE REVIEW

• Employability is not the same as employment
• Capacity of the graduate to function effectively
  in a job it should not be confused with the
  acquisition of a job too many extraneous
  political, economic social factors impacting on
  employment
• Employability as a curricular process
• Curricula design should support the development
  of intellectual critical thinking skills that
  enable a graduate to fulfil a role not merely
  possessing the task-related skills that enable a
  graduate to do a specific job (Cox King, 2006)
• Increasingly complex understandings by
  academics of generic graduate attributes how
  these inform curricula (Barrie, 2006)

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LITERATURE REVIEW (cont.)

• Employability as achievement and potential
• HEIs are not always successful in preparing
  learners for the complexity of advanced knowledge
  economies symbolic analysts (Reich, 2002)
• Undergraduate programmes should be concerned
  with
• Abstraction (theorising relating empirical data
  to theory using formulae, equations, models
  metaphors)
• Systems thinking (seeing the part in the context
  of the wider whole)
• Experimentation (intuitively or analytically)
• Collaboration (involving communication teamwork
  skills).

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

• Data Collection and Sample
• Quantitative qualitative methodologies
• Graduate survey
• 2005-2008 NMMU graduates 2841 in total
• Non-probability convenience snowball sampling
  methods
• Sampling frame NMMU alumni database
• 2008 graduates were targeted at the graduation
  ceremonies in April
• Employer interviews
• Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with
  selected employers in E S Cape
• Sampling frame all employers on the NMMU
  employer database
• Purposive sampling - at least one representative
  per employment sector
• 45 employer interviews conducted in total

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY GRADUATE SURVEY
YEAR OF GRADUATION PARTICIPANTS GRADUATES
2005 2.4 (68) 28.2 (6613)
2006 4.5 (195) 24.4 (5718)
2007 3.2 (91) 21.8 (5097)
2008 89.9 (2555) 25.6 (5994)
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INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

• Cut points calculated by dividing the range of 4
  (5-1) into 4 equal intervals
• 4.2 and above
• 3.4 4.2
• 2.6 3.4
• less than 2.6

• Percentages positive, negative neutral
• Analysed for whole sample broken down further
  for relevant variables (e.g. year of graduation,
  faculty, qualification type, employment sector)
• Open-ended responses
• Recurring themes extracted from the interview
  data
• Literature control triangulation enhance
  validity reliability

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DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
Employment Status

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DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
Employment Status

• More than 75 of all respondents in full-time
  employment
• 76.9 of 2008 respondents in full-time employment
• Only 3.3 unemployed
• Most respondents (81) employed in an occupation
  related to their qualification
• 86.3 of respondents obtained their first jobs
  within six months after qualifying

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DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
Employment status

• Of the 3.3 who were unemployed at the time of
  the study, the reasons provided for unemployment
  included
• More than a third (34.3) were studying further
• The rest could not find employment due to the
  following reasons
• Lack of work experience (25.8)
• Lack of opportunities in field of study (14.3)
• Not seeking employment (13.5)
• Other common problems reported in finding
  employment included
• Employment equity policies
• Under-qualified
• Over-qualified

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DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
Recruitment and training

• NMMU Graduate Recruitment Programme Graduate
  placement was amazing!
• Some concerns expressed by employers
• Graduates do not know how to prepare proper CVs
  when applying for a job
• Employers feel that graduates should be better
  prepared for job interviews
• Graduates do not seem to have sufficient career
  information and have very unrealistic
  expectations about the world of work
• It takes graduates a long time to adapt and
  become fully functional in the workplace
• Insufficient numbers of graduates in scarce
  skills areas (e.g. ICT)

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DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
Experiential learning

• Employers
• 17 of the 45 employers in the sample currently
  offer opportunities for students to be placed for
  experiential or work-integrated learning
• Employers appreciated the fact that some academic
  departments encourage feedback from industry
  (e.g. Engineering, IT)
• Lack of trained workplace mentors problematic
  capacity constraints
• Graduates
• 82.2 of respondents who did not take part in
  experiential or work-integrated learning felt
  that it would have enhanced their employability
• 87.4 of respondents agreed that academic staff
  should consult employers when designing or
  updating academic programmes/ curricula

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DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY Level
and type of qualification

• More than half (59.7) of the respondents pursued
  further studies
• 85.2 felt that their postgraduate studies
  enhanced their knowledge, skills competencies
  for their current job
• Graduates in Science (70.3), Arts (68.4),
  Business (61.2), Education (61.2) most likely
  to study further
• Graduates who obtained a four-year professional
  degree were the least likely to continue with
  further studies (34.4) e.g. Law
• Emphasis placed by employers on employees
  engaging in continuing professional development
  lifelong learning obtaining a first
  qualification is no longer sufficient

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DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
Graduate knowledge, skills attributes

• 22 skills attributes rated according to (i)
  importance, (ii) extent to which graduates were
  equipped with these skills attributes at NMMU
• All of the skills attributes rated by graduates
  as very important, with the exception of
  entrepreneurship (3.98)
• Top 6 ratings professionalism (4.64) honesty
  (4.57) communication skills (4.53) problem
  solving (4.51) self-confidence (4.50) teamwork
  (4.49)
• Best prepared through their studies honesty
  (4.47) professionalism (4.42) working
  independently (4.35) interpersonal skills
  (4.30) teamwork (4.30)
• Effect size determine whether statistically
  significant differences are discrepancies of
  practical concern
• Differences of moderate practical concern
  communication skills (d 0.56) presentation
  skills (d 0.51)

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DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
Graduate knowledge, skills attributes

• Employers expect graduates to be competent in the
  following skills
• Communication
• Interpersonal relations
• Teamwork
• Problem-solving analytical skills
• Soft skills such as the ability to dress
  appropriately, basic good manners the ability
  to present themselves well
• Computer literacy
• Management skills (especially financial project
  management)
• Administrative organisational skills

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DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
Graduate knowledge, skills attributes

• Employers seek out graduates with a range of
  personal attributes
• Honesty integrity - professionalism behaving
  in an ethical manner
• Self-assurance, including self-confidence,
  -awareness, -belief, -sufficiency, -direction
  -promotion labelled assertiveness by some
  employers
• Ambition, including the drive to succeed,
  commitment, willingness to go the extra mile
  passion
• Self-regulation, including time management,
  ability to work without supervision, being a
  self-starter seeing things through to a
  conclusion
• Resilience, i.e. ability to work under pressure
  to cope with stress - emotionally mature,
  emotionally intelligent, spiritually mature

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DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
Enhancing the Employability of NMMU Graduates

• Address unrealistic expectations of students
  regarding the world of work
• More opportunities for experiential learning
  before graduation
• Academic staff should work more closely with
  relevant employers to enhance the relevance of
  curricula facilitate experiential
  learning/graduate placement
• Relevant or market-related programmes
• Improve communication skills of all students
• Emphasise work ethics
• Develop soft skills
• Embed knowledge on basic business practice into
  all curricula

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THE WAY FORWARD Some considerations for closing
the loop

• Research-informed dialogue with academics other
  stakeholders to enhance curriculum responsiveness
  role of IR
• Systematic impact studies go beyond merely
  counting the number of employed graduates in SA
  deeper analyses of graduate employability
• Possibility of follow-up studies to inform
  analyses of HE impact
• At departmental or programme level (e.g. as part
  of programme review/ professional accreditation
  processes)
• At institutional level constraints financial
  HR capacity availability of accurate alumni
  data comparability of research findings
• Need to implement nationally commissioned
  graduate employability studies at sectoral level
  funded by DoHET/CHE e.g. Australia, UK
• Conduct comparative analyses of SA research
  findings with similar international studies

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THANK YOU!
Heather.Nel_at_nmmu.ac.za Annemarie.Barnard_at_nmmu.ac.z
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