Engineering Graduates at a South African University and their Prospective Employers – Expectations and Reality

Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa in 1994, numerous changes have occurred at tertiary institutions to enable greater access for people of all backgrounds and increased graduate throughput to fulfil the needs of the labor market for engineers. Widespread changes in the size and composition of successive undergraduate engineering cohorts have occurred. Simultaneously, the needs of industry have undergone significant changes due to the information age, globalization, the rapid increase in technological advances and access. This study attempted to assess the alignment between the expectations of engineering graduates, the expectations of engineering employers and reality. A mixed methods research was developed. The study firstly surveyed engineering graduates at a South African University using a questionnaire developed for quantitative analysis. Convenience sampling and a positivist approach were used. Graduates' needs, study approaches, employment and workplace expectations were determined, analyzed and interpreted through the lens of two frameworks, namely Biggs' study motives and strategies and Bloom's taxonomy. Secondly, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with all engineering discipline academic leaders at the University, within an interpretivist paradigm using deductive thematic semantic analysis. Academic leaders were used as a proxy for industry opinion and questioned on a number of themes including graduate and employer expectations, positive or negative trends, graduate training programs, further training and postgraduate study, exit-level outcomes (ELOs) and graduate attributes, the reality of misalignment and what the University can do to limit it. Responses were collated and compared quantitatively and qualitatively where appropriate. A number of issues and mis-alignments were identified together with their causes. Mis-alignment was identified in salary, growth and guidance expectations, confidence, software and niche proficiencies and innovation expectations. Key causes included language barriers, lack of engineering hobbyist backgrounds, workload and study strategies, assessment changes and personal responsibility. Findings were discussed within the theoretical frameworks mentioned above and summarized in light of the objectives of this study. Recommendations for the University in mitigating many of the issues and mis-alignment were provided, along with recommendations for any possible future research in this area.