Employment Opportunities for Psychology Graduates in South Africa: A Contemporary Analysis

Abstract

The practice of psychology in South Africa currently depends on a high level of qualification and is reserved within professional registration. Apart from the fact that this professionalisation does not produce the human resources necessary to meet the social needs of the country, it is also excluding the potential enlistment of a very large number of graduates in psychology in social practice domains. In order to make an analysis of the current situation, an audit was done of professional and graduate trends in 1993/1994, and a newspaper survey of employment opportunities in 1994 for graduates in psychology was conducted. The data indicate a rapidly developing professional population, with little apparent uptake for employment in public service or the private sector. On the other hand, employment opportunities exist for graduates in the broad social sciences, mainly at a non-professional and generalist level. Job advertisements indicate that a wide range of skills are required of graduates, many of which are not reflected in current degree curricula in Psychology. It is recommended that data on social trends, together with information on the ongoing development of the psychological profession, be used to reflect on current social and psychological practice and tertiary educational curricula in psychology.