Publications > Lmi programme > Briefings

Enhancing employability: What can be done to improve TVET students' chances of finding work?


Date posted:

2022/11/01

Publication year:

2016

Corporate author/s:

Centre for Researching Education and Labour (REAL); Labour Market Intelligence Partnership (LMIP), Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET)

Person/s author/s:

Wedekind, Volker

Output-type:

briefing or fact sheet

Format:

pdf

Unemployment of young people in South Africa is regarded as a crisis that needs urgent intervention. Disaffected and disillusioned youth are a potential threat to the long-term stability of the society as a whole. When graduates from institutions such as the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges are not employable this is even more worrying as significant public money has been invested in their training. One reason cited for their failure to access the labour market is the apparent lack of 'employability skills'. This policy brief seeks to interrogate the notion of employability skills. It draws on a number of case studies conducted as part of the Labour Market Intelligence Partnership (LMIP) that sought to understand the relationship between specific education programmes and the labour market. It problematizes the overemphasis on employability skills, and the notion that a responsive curriculum is one that addresses employer needs. Instead, the research reveals that there needs to be an interactive process between education providers and employers as equal partners. This partnership is most likely to lead to the employability of graduates.

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