Higher education and labour market outcomes: learning from the global South

Society for Research into Higher Education Seminar
Wednesday 26 June 2019, 11.30am-3.30pm

This seminar presents an in-depth engagement with the role of HE qualifications in relation to labour market outcomes. Drawing on insights from South Africa, the presenters problematize assumptions of a straightforward connection between HE qualifications and the labour market, and discuss the importance of broader understandings of the way HE interacts with society.

Dr Volker Wedekind will be drawing on case studies conducted for a large scale study into labour market intelligence in South Africa, and will examine how some of these processes work at the level of qualifications that are intended to lead to specific occupational outcomes. The case studies are located in the agro-processing sector focused on pulp and paper, forestry and sugar, offered through a range of higher education institutions. The programmes were designed through interaction with industry and have strong employment focused outcomes. The cases show that there are a range of unintended consequences. The study found that the outcomes are shaped, not by issues of curriculum or pedagogy in the main, but rather by wider social and economic factors that are outside the educational space. While there is pressure on universities and colleges to adjust and respond in a variety of ways, this responsiveness can in fact misread the real drivers of the education-economy nexus and even undermine the value of the qualifications for students.

Please visit the SRHE website for full event details, programme and information on presenters.