Graduate capabilities required of South African food science and technology students

Metcalfe, D. J. A.; Fourie, Cornelius M.; Myburgh, Christoffel Petrus Hendrikus

doi:10.1111/1541-4329.12177

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The pressure to produce employable graduates is an issue in virtually all countries—both developing and developed (Grotkowska et al, 2015; Jenkins & Lane, 2019; Metcalfe et al, 2020; Mok et al, 2016; Small et al, 2018). This is largely manifested in the onus on universities to churn out well-trained and employable graduates.…”

Section: Graduate Employability: Global Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fostering Graduate Employability: Rethinking Tanzania’s University Practices

Mgaiwa

2021

Sage Open

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Globalization, partly spurred by technological innovation such as artificial intelligence and robotics, continues to disrupt not only economic trajectories and business models, especially in the developed world, but also the knowledge and skill requirements for graduates entering the labor market. A growing corpus of literature on graduates’ employability has identified barriers to employment ranging from skills mismatch to a lack of soft skills. Although the literature on graduate employability is informative and illuminating, the role of university practices in fostering graduate employability in sub-Saharan Africa, and Tanzania in particular, has been less studied. Drawing on the broader employability literature, this article provides a comprehensive analysis of the best university practices in an effort to address the unemployment problems of university graduates in sub-Saharan Africa and Tanzania in particular. Four critical university best practices for fostering graduate employability are of interest—developing effective university—industry partnerships, aligning university education with a country’s development plans, regular university curriculum reviews, and strengthening quality assurance systems. Therefore, this article contributes to the higher education literature on the role of university practices in fostering graduate employability.

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Section: Graduate Employability: Global Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fostering Graduate Employability: Rethinking Tanzania’s University Practices

Mgaiwa

2021

Sage Open

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“…Thus, the skills listed by our respondents largely overlap with these standards. Similarly, other studies that have examined what food science educators and industry professionals think are important outside the United States have also identified that communication, business skills, teamwork, and knowledge of disciplinary skills are essential competencies for food science (Flynn et al., 2013; Mayor et al., 2015; Metcalfe et al., 2020; Weston et al., 2017, 2020). Interestingly, past work has found major variation in the skills that food science industry professionals identify as important based on geographic region, suggesting that more work is needed to explore if our results—and the standards listed by IFT's HERB—are representative of what food science communities in other parts of the United States identify as the most critical skills for food science students and professionals to develop (Flynn et al., 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring pathways to food science careers in Southern California: A case study in food science career development

Hsu,

Ahles,

Senger

et al. 2023

Journal of Food Science

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Southern California is a diverse region that is home to a high concentration of food science companies, with an increasing demand for additional food scientists and technologists to join this workforce. Despite this abundance of food science companies and the high demand for jobs, there is currently a shortage in the number of qualified food scientists and technologists in the region. This shortage is also observed within higher education, with declining enrollments in the food science graduate and undergraduate programs across Southern California. Here, we conduct a case study to explore the factors that influence students from Southern California to pursue or not pursue careers in food science. We surveyed both undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled in food science as well as industry professionals in the region to determine sources of knowledge about the discipline, and motivations and barriers for pursuing careers in food science. We also surveyed high school educators in the region to gain additional perspectives on how food science is being introduced at the secondary level, if at all. Our results demonstrate that many students and high school educators are not knowledgeable about career options within food science and that students who are pursuing food science largely report similar motivations for pursuing the discipline as those currently working in the food science industry. We conclude by discussing implications for the food science education community within Southern California and beyond.

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“…However, graduate employability is not a problem for the developed countries, it is a global problem [28,25,29,30,31]. But developing and least developed countries are still far behind compared to the developed world in both developing curricula and policy making for better graduate employability outcomes.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Curricula and Employability: An Empirical Study on Tertiary Level Students of Bangladesh

Khan

Mojkury

2021

AJESS

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Aim: The continuous innovation of information technologies accelerates the global economic development. The recent development of artificial intelligence and machine learning theory are not only through a big challenge to the graduates to enter to the job market but also all the stakeholders of entire knowledge economy to stay in the right track for better future. To develop graduates' professionalism with strong foundation of adequate skills are pivotal to meet the future challenges of fourth industrial revolution and artificial intelligence. The aim of the study is to assess the perception and attitude of graduate students regarding future employability in the context of their curriculum. Data from 750 tertiary level students are collected purposively by direct interview method. A questionnaire is designed based the study aim with suitable well-structured closed ended questions. Methodology: A five-point Likert scale is considered to measure the opinion and attitude towards future employability and curricula. Descriptive statistical techniques are used for basic comparisons while Chi-square test is appointed to assess the significance of different determinants to the graduates opinions and attitudes. Results: We found graduates average age 22.39 years with small standard deviation 1.55. Most of the respondents (66.5%) belonging to bellow average income group. A clear educational migration observed in secondary to higher secondary education level. Very unexpected response observed when we asked students regarding their curricula for employability. 9.33% respondents think that the curricula is not important and 35.2% think curricula as least important. Significant impact of students gender, age and place of higher secondary level education place observed on their opinion regarding curricula for future employability. Conclusion: The growing literature on graduate employability suggest that the role of tertiary level educational institutions, the curricula planners and the policy makers fostering graduate employability over the globe. This article endows with a comprehensive analysis of graduates' attitude towards employability. We hope that this study will contribute to promote graduate employability.

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Graduate capabilities required of South African food science and technology students

Cited by 6 publications

References 33 publications

Fostering Graduate Employability: Rethinking Tanzania’s University Practices

Fostering Graduate Employability: Rethinking Tanzania’s University Practices

Exploring pathways to food science careers in Southern California: A case study in food science career development

Curricula and Employability: An Empirical Study on Tertiary Level Students of Bangladesh

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