Why employers need to help shape the graduates they hire

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JIMMY MOYAHA: In the world we live in today, every bit helps in terms of having a competitive advantage in the workplace, especially in South Africa where we have such a high unemployment rate, and part of that is being prepared to enter South Africa’s economy.

We’re going to be examining this from the perspective of newly qualified graduates, and trying to understand how prepared they need to be for the South African economy.

I’m joined on the line by the chief academic officer at Eduvos, Dr Mandi Joubert, to take a look at this and see what we make of it. Dr Joubert, it’s lovely having you on the show, as always, thanks so much for taking the time.

Whose responsibility is it to prepare South Africa’s graduates for South Africa’s workplace? Is it the responsibility of the tertiary institutions, the government, the people of the country; whose responsibility is it?

MANDI JOUBERT: Thank you so much for having me, first of all. Then I would almost want to say all of the above, can we have it as a multiple choice?

JIMMY MOYAHA: [Chuckle].

MANDI JOUBERT: I think it’s such a good question and I also think that for us to answer that it is a shared responsibility.

I think there are a number of role players and that we need to collectively take responsibility as part of that ecosystem.

So certainly, as higher education institutions, we have to provide that strong academic foundation. We have to ensure that our students receive the relevant learning and relevant curricula, as well as the opportunities to apply knowledge.

But as higher education institutions, we cannot create jobs on our own. We are reliant on employers to work with us, to shape the jobs, to shape the feedback and the skills that they require from students and to invest in that new talent.

Similarly for government to create conditions for education, opportunity and economic growth.

Similarly, if you look at professional bodies, entrepreneurship, communities, they all have valuable insight and they all have contributions to make to how we as higher education respond to and actually prepare those students for the world of work.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Dr Mandi, when we talk about preparing students for the world of work, it goes beyond just the academic preparation because a lot of it is understanding the economy we find ourselves in, it’s being able to navigate that changing economy and understanding what skills might be best suited at a particular time in that economy.

How do we ensure that graduates understand this and get this beyond just, as we typically know, the typical academic qualification?

MANDI JOUBERT: Thank you and I’m so grateful that you’re actually starting with the academic knowledge because that deep discipline, academic knowledge, remains essential.

So we’re talking about what are the additional skills, and these skills don’t replace the initial starting point of the deep academic knowledge.

The question is what is the additional information and skills they need to supplement that, to help them succeed in the world of work?

Certainly, they also need the ability to apply that knowledge in situations when problems might be unclear, when it’s ambiguous, where the information is incomplete. So that means skills like communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and even ethical judgment.

It yes, absolutely means that they need to be digital and AI [artificial intelligence] literate, but they also need to know how to evaluate output and how to remain accountable for the work.

But perhaps most important, as you said, in this changing economy, they also need the ability to keep learning, that agility and the resilience.

Their first job ultimately may look very different from what they’ve imagined, and their later career may also take an entirely different direction.

So we should then ultimately ensure that we prepare graduates to contribute both in their first role, but also to be able to adapt beyond that.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Dr Mandi, let’s take a look at those other stakeholders that you touched on. You mentioned at the start of the conversation that it was a multiple-choice answer, and that everybody bore some responsibility for preparing graduates.

I want to take a look at the requirements or the role that employers play in getting graduates ready. Ultimately, these are the companies that are going to be employing the graduates that want to receive those graduates.

What do they need to bring to the table when it comes to communicating towards the graduates, things like their expectations?

MANDI JOUBERT: I think the role that employers have to play starts much earlier than the actual recruitment process, they can start their contribution already at the point of curriculum design.

When we start discussions around the development of a qualification, bringing their feedback as to what they would need, what the industry needs are, they can contribute by bringing their real problems and examples into the classroom.

It’s workplace exposure [for students], but also feedback on where graduates are well prepared and where they potentially need support.

We’re quite reliant on them [employers] in terms of looking ahead. So what are the insights in terms of what is changing? What are some of the early trends that they are observing? What are the capabilities that in their view are becoming more important?

What tools are changing? What potentially might an entry-level role look like in three years from now?

Then ultimately, once the graduates enter employment, the employers would still need to provide that induction, supervision, mentoring and the reasonable opportunity for students to learn.

The point is that collaboration between employers and higher education institutions can make that learning opportunity so much quicker or smaller, if they work with the higher education providers from the outset in terms of the actual curricula design, in terms of the early workplace exposure, bringing the workplace into the students’ programme and the curricula.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Dr Mandi, before I let you go, I want to take a look at how important this is from an ecosystem perspective, because we live in a world that is constantly changing, which means job demands are constantly changing, economic demands are constantly changing, and by extension, educational demands are changing.

This is where you speak of the adjustments to the curricula that need to be made.

But I want to take a look at where we reinforce this relationship between employer, educational service provider and government, such that we have a cohesive ecosystem that understands that things are not going to be static every time we have new graduates enter the workplace.

MANDI JOUBERT: I think there are a number of opportunities to enable that. The first is, as we said, collaboration is critical.

I think often the risk is that we have these multiple role players, but we treat it as a relay race that the student would pass through these various aspects from learning into education, and then there’s that gap or the handover between them.

The reality is that often not only education but also the employment is not linear.

A student would move from a workplace to a workplace; they would enter and exit higher education. But that also means the collaboration between higher education institutions and industry. So education providers with the industry should regularly examine how the work is changing, including these early signs that we’ve seen.

But we also need to ensure that we expand the meaningful access for practical experience and exposure.

That means we need more organisations that are willing to host the students, that are willing to as part of their studies, and not only once they graduate, mentoring these students or contributing to projects including smaller businesses.

Often, I think we overlook the informal economy and the significant contribution that that actually makes. This experience that we expose students to must involve useful learning and appropriate support.

Then from government’s perspective, also creating this enabling policy environment to allow us as institutions, with industry, to rapidly respond to the changing environment. Of course, subject to a rigid quality assurance framework.

JIMMY MOYAHA: It is everybody’s responsibility to ensure that the graduates that we produce as a country are prepared to enter the South African economy and contribute positively towards that economy, especially as the requirements of economic growth continuously change in the world that we live in today.

We’ll have to leave this conversation on that note, chief academic officer at Eduvos, Dr Mandi Joubert, joining us to take a look at how it is that we better prepare graduates for the workplace.

Brought to you by Eduvos. 

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