Abstract
StatsSA, Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) reports that the current general unemployment rate in South Africa is at a high of 29.1% (StatsSA 2019). This means that graduates entering the labour market are not only faced with the challenges that come with transitioning from being students to workplace professionals but are challenged with barriers preventing them from entering the labour market in the first place. As such, the main purpose of the research paper was to discover and gain insight into the experiences of first-generation Social Work Graduates from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) entering the labour market. This study explores how first-generation Social Work Graduates from UJ (2016-2017) transition to being graduates and how they navigate the labour market thereafter. A qualitative research approach was deployed, and semi-structured interviews were conducted. The research was conducted with 9 female and 1 male Bachelor of Social Work graduates, from low socioeconomic backgrounds, who completed their degree from the University of Johannesburg between 2016 and 2017. The main findings indicated that most of the graduates studied Social Work because they thought it was a scarce skill and that finding employment after graduation would be easy. However, most of the graduates who were interviewed for this study were still unemployed after graduation and still experienced challenges with navigating into the labour market. Transitioning into the labour market requires resources such as Internet access, money, and social connections- which first-generation graduates mostly lack. In addition, the graduates also lack the cultural capital that could be useful in helping them transition into the labour market. However, despite these challenges, they have displayed agency and resilience; they deployed internal mechanisms to cope with transitioning into unknown territory and dealing with disappointments. This study contributed to the body of literature on first-generation graduates in South Africa and how they experience transitioning into and navigating the labour market.
M.A. (Social Impact Assessment)