Abstract
This study focused on the impact of employability programmes among graduates in
Johannesburg. I focus on this issue because of the attention paid to graduate
unemployment in the popular media. In the literature two opposing views exist about
graduate unemployment. First, that graduate unemployment is of urgent concern in
South Africa, and second that graduate unemployment is a non-issue. I take the
position that, regardless of the extent of the issue, certain groups of graduates
continue to struggle to find work and therefore graduate unemployment is an issue
that deserves attention. As a result, this study explored how graduates who have
participated in employability programmes view the effect of these programmes. In as
much as employability programmes are investing in these graduates, my premise is
that there is a need to understand whether these programmes work or not. Following
a qualitative paradigm, this study made use of semi-structured interviews to elicit
responses from eight participants on their perceptions of the impact of employability
programmes. Using thematic analysis, data was analysed, and emerging themes
touched on positive and negative perceptions around graduates’ chances of getting
employment, the importance of social networks to accessing employability
programmes, lack of experience as a cause of graduate unemployment, and
empowerment as one result of employability programmes. Using Bourdieu’s
theoretical framework on social and cultural capital, the study concluded that
graduates who participated in employability programmes felt that the programmes
made a positive impact on unemployed graduates through providing computer skills,
entrepreneurial skills, values of self-worth and how to conduct oneself in a job
interview. Therefore the programmes do offer some forms of cultural and social capital,
but cannot address many of the structural causes of unemployment, leaving many of
the participants in a continued state of unemployment.
M.A. (Social Impact Assessment)