It graduates’ first year of employment experiences and recommendations for the curriculum design

Abstract

Employment issues in South Africa (SA) are a significant problem. Ongoing discussions in SA revolve around the employability challenges facing South African graduates, particularly in the Information Technology (IT) sector. IT graduates’ skill sets and employability status as well as the validity of the IT curriculum meeting industry needs have been questioned. A descriptive case study on graduates from an accredited, private higher education institution in SA using questionnaires and interviews was done to understand the experiences of employers, employed graduates and recruitment personnel upon employing the graduates, using qualitative analysis. This study investigated, determined and confirmed recommendations to adapt the institution’s curriculum to improve the productivity of their IT graduates upon employment, which may be of value for other higher education institutions offering IT training.