An analysis of the employability of civil engineering graduate technicians
- Authors: Ikudayisi, Akinola Mayowa
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Job hunting , Career development , Labor market
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/51578 , vital:43312
- Description: In South Africa, a severe shortage of professional engineers exists compared to the international benchmark of an average population per engineer. This shortage is one of the major causes of poor service and utility delivery at the municipal level. In addition, there is an insufficient number of competent engineers available for ongoing projects. Hence, there is a critical shortage of experienced, engineering professionals, particularly mid-career engineers to be responsible for production works. As a result, Universities of Technology (UoT) were tasked and authorised to train engineering professionals. From research, it was discovered that most of the Civil Engineering Graduate Technicians (CEGT) failed to acquire and develop relevant and essential industry skills during their engineering programme. This makes it difficult for them to be employed in the engineering workplaces. The departments of civil engineering in some South African universities have not evaluated the quality of the education of their CEGT and their employability to work in the engineering industry. This research therefore aims to measure the employability and quality of education of Civil Engineering Graduate Technicians from some South African universities by investigating the experiences of civil engineering alumni and employers of graduates in the engineering industry. This is to determine if the graduate technicians are provided and equipped with relevant industry competencies and skills set to meet the industry’s expectation. An online survey which contains 89 closed-ended questions was designed to allow alumni and their employers assess the standard of education of graduates and industry competence acquired during their engineering programmes. The Universal Resource Link (URL) to the online questionnaire was sent to a sample of 600 respondents using a web-based survey approach. Only seventeen percent of the targeted population completed the survey and that makes 102 respondents in this study. A conceptual model that measures the employability of Civil Engineering Graduate Technicians was also developed. The data gathered was statistically analysed. Varying descriptive and inferential statistics were explored, such as frequency distributions, central measure, dispersion measure, the Cronbach alpha coefficient test, one-sample t-tests, Cohen’s d, Pearson’s product moment correlation, ANOVA, MANOVA, ranking indices and lastly, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The EFA was employed to ensure the construct validity of the instrument and to identify items which should be removed. Each of these statistics cumulatively performs an empirical evaluation of the Civil Engineering Graduate Technician employability model. From the result of the data analysis, the hypothesised model identified the following factors as having an influence on the employability of Civil Engineering Graduate Technicians: Knowledge Gained, Academic Staff Teaching, Engineering Design Ability, Individual and Teamwork Ability, Participation of each Student, Infrastructure Provided, Problem Solving Skills, Professional and Technical Communication Skills, Workplace Practices, Encouragement in School and Essentiality of Creativity and Innovation. These eleven independent factors from Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient were all found to possess good internal reliability. They all exert a significant positive effect on employability. Additionally, managerial recommendations, limitations to the study and a call for future research were discussed. If these recommendations are implemented, UoTs and employers in the civil engineering industry should be successful in producing work-ready civil engineering technicians. Having these recommendations implemented is fundamental to creating innovative and skilled technicians and engineers in the engineering industry, who can adapt to market changes. Of the competencies assessed, “Individual and Teamwork ability” received the highest and “Infrastructure provided” the lowest rating. Overall, the results indicate that employers are reasonably satisfied with the competencies of Civil Engineering Graduate Technicians but point to the need for the strengthening of “Engineering design ability”, “Professional and technical communication skills” and “Infrastructure provided” competencies within the curriculum of the Diploma programme. , Thesis (MBA) -- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, Business Administration, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-04
- Authors: Ikudayisi, Akinola Mayowa
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Job hunting , Career development , Labor market
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/51578 , vital:43312
- Description: In South Africa, a severe shortage of professional engineers exists compared to the international benchmark of an average population per engineer. This shortage is one of the major causes of poor service and utility delivery at the municipal level. In addition, there is an insufficient number of competent engineers available for ongoing projects. Hence, there is a critical shortage of experienced, engineering professionals, particularly mid-career engineers to be responsible for production works. As a result, Universities of Technology (UoT) were tasked and authorised to train engineering professionals. From research, it was discovered that most of the Civil Engineering Graduate Technicians (CEGT) failed to acquire and develop relevant and essential industry skills during their engineering programme. This makes it difficult for them to be employed in the engineering workplaces. The departments of civil engineering in some South African universities have not evaluated the quality of the education of their CEGT and their employability to work in the engineering industry. This research therefore aims to measure the employability and quality of education of Civil Engineering Graduate Technicians from some South African universities by investigating the experiences of civil engineering alumni and employers of graduates in the engineering industry. This is to determine if the graduate technicians are provided and equipped with relevant industry competencies and skills set to meet the industry’s expectation. An online survey which contains 89 closed-ended questions was designed to allow alumni and their employers assess the standard of education of graduates and industry competence acquired during their engineering programmes. The Universal Resource Link (URL) to the online questionnaire was sent to a sample of 600 respondents using a web-based survey approach. Only seventeen percent of the targeted population completed the survey and that makes 102 respondents in this study. A conceptual model that measures the employability of Civil Engineering Graduate Technicians was also developed. The data gathered was statistically analysed. Varying descriptive and inferential statistics were explored, such as frequency distributions, central measure, dispersion measure, the Cronbach alpha coefficient test, one-sample t-tests, Cohen’s d, Pearson’s product moment correlation, ANOVA, MANOVA, ranking indices and lastly, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The EFA was employed to ensure the construct validity of the instrument and to identify items which should be removed. Each of these statistics cumulatively performs an empirical evaluation of the Civil Engineering Graduate Technician employability model. From the result of the data analysis, the hypothesised model identified the following factors as having an influence on the employability of Civil Engineering Graduate Technicians: Knowledge Gained, Academic Staff Teaching, Engineering Design Ability, Individual and Teamwork Ability, Participation of each Student, Infrastructure Provided, Problem Solving Skills, Professional and Technical Communication Skills, Workplace Practices, Encouragement in School and Essentiality of Creativity and Innovation. These eleven independent factors from Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient were all found to possess good internal reliability. They all exert a significant positive effect on employability. Additionally, managerial recommendations, limitations to the study and a call for future research were discussed. If these recommendations are implemented, UoTs and employers in the civil engineering industry should be successful in producing work-ready civil engineering technicians. Having these recommendations implemented is fundamental to creating innovative and skilled technicians and engineers in the engineering industry, who can adapt to market changes. Of the competencies assessed, “Individual and Teamwork ability” received the highest and “Infrastructure provided” the lowest rating. Overall, the results indicate that employers are reasonably satisfied with the competencies of Civil Engineering Graduate Technicians but point to the need for the strengthening of “Engineering design ability”, “Professional and technical communication skills” and “Infrastructure provided” competencies within the curriculum of the Diploma programme. , Thesis (MBA) -- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, Business Administration, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-04
Evaluating the Public Employment Services, administered by the Department of Labour in Mthatha
- Mntuyedwa, Ntandokazi Miranda
- Authors: Mntuyedwa, Ntandokazi Miranda
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Labor market , Unemployment -- South Africa -- Mthatha , Employment agencies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:9093 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1011638 , Labor market , Unemployment -- South Africa -- Mthatha , Employment agencies
- Description: The Public Employment Service of South Africa (PES-SA) registers unemployed work seekers and placement opportunities to enable the Department of Labour (DoL) to place as many of these work seekers as possible in work. The aim of the present study is to identify challenges in the implementation of PES-SA, and to identify and make recommendations on areas for improvement and strengthening. The study is restricted to two of the six main PES-SA service offerings: (a) Registration Services and (b) Recruitment and Selection Services. The study was partially a process evaluation and partially an impact evaluation. The process evaluation assessed the quality of PES-SA‟s systems, structures, capacity, management and strategic focus. The purpose of the impact evaluation was to understand the challenges and gaps in delivery and implementation, the reasons behind the low matching success, and the extent of uptake by users. The evaluation therefore had a technical data-evaluation component and a component which assessed the reasons behind statistical and other quantitative data patterns. The study was conducted in Mthatha Department of Labour, Eastern Cape. The sample of the study was drawn from workseekers that are in the database and the Researcher drawn 40 respondents and the use of quantitative method was done. A questionnaire was developed and issued out to respondents. The Public Employment Service staff in Mthatha, Department of Labour was also interviewed. All five Employment Service Practitioners and a Career Counsellor were interviewed. A qualitative study was used for these respondents. In the responses of both teams it was deduced that the intention of the service is good but up to this far it has not proven any impact on the reduction of unemployment. Reasons behind the failure of the service were outlined to be the reluctance of the employers to utilise the service and the IT systems that is failing. The staff also mentioned that they were never trained on the service and therefore finds it difficult to render some of the services. Another challenge that was picked up from staff members is that the service is not yet legislated.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Mntuyedwa, Ntandokazi Miranda
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Labor market , Unemployment -- South Africa -- Mthatha , Employment agencies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:9093 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1011638 , Labor market , Unemployment -- South Africa -- Mthatha , Employment agencies
- Description: The Public Employment Service of South Africa (PES-SA) registers unemployed work seekers and placement opportunities to enable the Department of Labour (DoL) to place as many of these work seekers as possible in work. The aim of the present study is to identify challenges in the implementation of PES-SA, and to identify and make recommendations on areas for improvement and strengthening. The study is restricted to two of the six main PES-SA service offerings: (a) Registration Services and (b) Recruitment and Selection Services. The study was partially a process evaluation and partially an impact evaluation. The process evaluation assessed the quality of PES-SA‟s systems, structures, capacity, management and strategic focus. The purpose of the impact evaluation was to understand the challenges and gaps in delivery and implementation, the reasons behind the low matching success, and the extent of uptake by users. The evaluation therefore had a technical data-evaluation component and a component which assessed the reasons behind statistical and other quantitative data patterns. The study was conducted in Mthatha Department of Labour, Eastern Cape. The sample of the study was drawn from workseekers that are in the database and the Researcher drawn 40 respondents and the use of quantitative method was done. A questionnaire was developed and issued out to respondents. The Public Employment Service staff in Mthatha, Department of Labour was also interviewed. All five Employment Service Practitioners and a Career Counsellor were interviewed. A qualitative study was used for these respondents. In the responses of both teams it was deduced that the intention of the service is good but up to this far it has not proven any impact on the reduction of unemployment. Reasons behind the failure of the service were outlined to be the reluctance of the employers to utilise the service and the IT systems that is failing. The staff also mentioned that they were never trained on the service and therefore finds it difficult to render some of the services. Another challenge that was picked up from staff members is that the service is not yet legislated.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
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