Graduate Employment: Introducing Construction Management Graduates to the Workplace in South Africa

摘要

The rapid changes in the construction business environment, fierce global competition, detailed client requirements, and the complexity of construction projects amplifies the need for highly educated and competent construction management graduates [17]. In the final report emanating from an internship baseline study, Koyana [13] claims that the biggest problem in the labour market is the inability to support young people in making the 'school-to-work' transition. This is arguably due to the work experience required at work only encompassing a low percentage of the invaluable theoretical knowledge acquired at HEIs. Although Lowden et al. [14] suggest that these institutions instill theoretical knowledge that is vital to any employment, and are a stepping-stone to obtaining good employment, employers and graduates perceive that more work can be undertaken to: increase the number of students graduating; develop students' wider skills and attributes, and ease the difficult transition to the workplace environment. Skills are of importance because, according to Zakariaa et al. [25], to be a competent employee, a person needs to possess two types of skills; specific skills, and employability skills.