Abstract
The silence about employers’ perspectives on the employability of newly qualified Social Work graduates from the largest open distance-learning university in South Africa was highlighted as the problem for this study. Underpinned by the theory of collaborative advantage as the theoretical framework adopted for this study, and following a qualitative research approach, the researcher entered into a research partnership with the social work fraternity. The aim was to explore employers’ perspectives on the employability of Unisa’s newly-qualified social workers and to gather suggestions for promoting graduates’ employment, and accordingly informing Unisa’s social work curriculum. This paper reports on these perspectives and suggestions.
Highlights
AND PROBLEM FORMULATION In striving for excellence and relevance institutions of higher education (IHEs) are confronted with two mutually related and influencing complex task-orientated processes.Firstly, they have to maintain and improve the quality of their programme offerings and learning activities (Pavlin, 2014:586; Cai, 2013:457)
After the evaluation of the Unisa improvement plan, the National Review Committee (NRC) recommended that the programme not be accredited and this decision was endorsed by the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) (Council for Higher Education, 2015:10)
The findings presented here reflect the perspectives of the participants on this de-accredited programme, but their suggestions have relevance for the new Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) qualification accredited by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and which is currently being phased in
Summary
AND PROBLEM FORMULATION In striving for excellence and relevance institutions of higher education (IHEs) are confronted with two mutually related and influencing complex task-orientated processes. Case study research can have instrumental purposes, such as to gain an in-depth understanding of the topic being explored (Creswell & Poth, 2017:98), to assist with the refinement of a theory (Thomas, 2016:121; Snow, Wolff, Hudspeth & Etheridge, 2009:234-244), or to inform policy development or professional practice (Simons in Thomas, 2016:10) The latter purpose applied to this study; as the collective case study design was instrumentally used with the intention of eliciting employers’ perspectives on the employability of UNQSWs and to request their suggestions to inform Unisa’s social work education and training curriculum development, benefiting social work practice and its NQSWs’ employability prospects. In order to allow for the readers and reviewers of this publication to make an assessment of the transferability or fittingness of the findings to other contexts and the credibility of the research findings (Creswell, 2016:194; Lietz & Zayas, 2010:195), the researcher endeavoured to provide a detailed, thick description of the research methodology employed, the research setting, the participants and the themes with supporting storylines
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