Finance degree is no guarantee of a job

"As soon as we finished high school, they told us there is a shortage of BCom graduates. They didn't say that once you graduate people won't hire you because you have no experience," he says. "How can one get experience without a job," he asks?

A lack of work experience and specialised skills among commerce graduates has come to be recognised as a barrier to getting a job.

It remains to be seen whether the multi-billion-rand youth employment accord between the government, business and labour will live up to the intentions of its signatories and create jobs and training opportunities for inexperienced job seekers.

Kabamba is part of the legions of SA's 40% of unemployed youth - one of the highest percentages in the world - with a considerable number of graduates among them.

He is among the 4.5m people that Statistics SA classifies as officially unemployed in that he is available to work, would like to work and is actively looking for a job. While Kabamba has not found that job yet, his degree puts him in a stronger position than the many others without any tertiary qualifications.

A recent report by the Centre for Development and Enterprise found that the number of people with degrees has grown rapidly since 1995. And the vast majority have found employment.

The study says in 1995 there were about 460,000 graduates in the work force and just 4% of them were unemployed.

Few unemployed graduates

By 2011, there were more than a million graduates in the work force, with 5% jobless.

But BCom graduates, in particular, struggle to find employment as they lack specialist and practical skills required by business, perhaps because of the poor health of the economy.

Kabamba, like many other graduates, studied a commerce degree to enhance his job prospects partly owing to the impression that commerce graduates will "always" be in demand. But he is living proof that this is not the case.

A marketing manager at Landelahni Recruitment Group, Tasneem Mohamed, says a BCom degree is "simply a minimum requirement" for an entry-level finance position.

Among schemes meant to provide BCom graduates - or those with equivalent qualifications - with work experience, is the Business Hub and Skills Training Programme, launched by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) and the Department of Economic Development last year.

Grauduates need their 'wings'

Speaking of the programme's first phase in which graduates are taught in simulated and virtual office environments, Saica's project director for transformation and growth, Byron Riddle, likened it to a pilot learning how to fly.

"They don't go out into a real plane until simulation is done," he says. "Once the graduates earn their 'wings', they move to the second phase, Riddle says. "In the second phase graduates work with the Small Enterprise Finance Agency to assist clients with back office accounting support.

Riddle says of the 100 participating graduates, 15 are retained by Saica and 70% are placed in employment.

But this still doesn't absorb all the commerce graduates. Some, unable to find employment, have opted to study further. Emily Adendorff is one. She has a BCom, an honours degree in economics and a post-graduate degree in law. She is completing another honours degree in financial management.

Her decision to keep studying is motivated by what she terms "over-specialised job profiles", which require skills often not included in her university curriculum.

Despite her intentions, this may not have been the wisest choice. Craig Thompson, managing director of staff recruitment agency Michael Page SA, says the "general employer perception is too much time in an academic institution means that candidates have not had sufficient exposure to the working world and the associated work ethic and pressure that comes with it".

But there are graduates, such as Carla Tarin, now a senior trainee accountant, who have never experienced the ills of job hunting. KPMG awarded Tarin a bursary in 2008, on the strength of her matric results. As part of the bursary, she is serving her articles with the firm.

While most graduates crave success, Fiona Johnson, a human resources expert at KPMG, says humility and diligence are necessary for graduates to thrive. "The career trajectory for commerce graduates is highly dependent on the opportunities provided by the companies that they join and the graduate's own work ethic," she says.

"Graduates with professional qualifications have the steepest career trajectory, which means they are likely to scale the corporate ladder much faster," she says.

Source: Business Day via I-Net Bridge