What do you need to fuse lecture hall learning with industry experience? ”Internships, learnerships and in-service training programmes,” responded two university graduates and beneficiaries of graduate programmes, who spoke to the Mail & Guardian this week.
”So face it,” said Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s chemical engineering graduate Lorraine Xamangela (25), ”there is no such thing as finding a dream job any more if you do not have experience.”
Xamangela’s counterpart, Obakeng Mabalane, a graduate of the University of Pretoria, is of the view that getting a degree these days is just like passing matric, because ”nobody employs inexperience”.
So true. Due to lack of skills, employers are emphasising the need for graduates to have some level of experience before attempting to apply for advertised job posts. This, unfortunately, has led to an increase of unemployed university graduates. The effect is greatest on traditional university graduates because experiential learning is not part of their curriculum. This phenomenon also leads to inexperienced graduates ending up taking jobs below their education levels.
The only way of dealing with this issue, says the director of cooperative education at the Vaal University of Technology, Alpheus Maphosa, is to introduce more graduate programmes. ”It is very important to note that internships are the best approach in addressing the skills development issue in the country,” he says.
According to Maphosa there is little advocacy, nationally, to promote internships, either by government or the private sector. He thinks the current national skills shortage presents an opportunity for industry to put more resources in internship programmes.
But recently, most government departments have heeded the call. One department which runs a successful internship programme is home affairs. The department’s programme was launched in 2004 and trains more than 200 graduates annually. Spokesperson Joseph Mohajane says there are specific areas within the department where skills are lacking. These areas include information technology, human resources and auditing.
”The programme is aimed at providing unemployed graduates with meaningful work experience — to enhance their employability,” says Mohajane.
When discussing graduate programmes, however, it is important to note the difference between them, Maphosa advises. Internship programmes are designed to run for a 12-month period and are usually provided to graduates with degrees. In-service training programmes are a little different from internships because they run for nine months and are part of the university of technoÂlogy curriculum. Learnerships differ from the other two because on completion of the programme, the student gets a Seta-accredited qualification, in line with the country’s skills development programme.
The home affairs internship programme begins in January each year and runs for 12 months. The programme is implemented in partnership with the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, whose role is to provide training in the areas of life skills and personal financial management, over and above the training provided by the department.
”The department nominates mentors who provide guidance and support to the interns as well as assess and report on their progress,” Mohajane says.