Every year, universities produces several graduates in various disciplines, yet many face difficulties in securing a job or venturing into entrepreneurship. Studies have shown that these students lack certain competencies to increase their employability, which results in a high number of unemployed graduates.

To tackle this challenge, the Erasmus SUCSESS project – which stands for “strengthening university-enterprise cooperation in South Africa to support regional development by enhancing lifelong learning skills, social innovations and inclusivity” – held its third workshop at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The University of Pretoria (UP) is one of six institutions, under principal investigator Professor Berendien Lubbe, that have partnered in this three-year project aimed at researching ways of reducing youth unemployment and increasing student employability in South Africa.

Members of UP’s Department of Historical and Heritage Studies, Business Management and Career Services participated in the workshop. The conference took place over four days, and looked at ways in which higher education can enhance students’ competencies and increase employability.

At the end of the workshop, a “Hackathon” was introduced as a method that could be used to tackle work-life competencies. The method was presented by Prof Hossana Twinomurinzi of UJ and Mika Kylänen, an Applied Sciences academic of Tampere University in Finland. In a limited time, four teams (from Tampere, UP, UJ and the University of Zululand) had to identify a problem, devise a solution and transform it into an app. The Hackathon created a technological and realistic solution to enhance students’ capabilities and increase their employability.

UP presented an app and website to bridge the gap between academia, students, Career Services and industry. With the help of software developer Angelic Danielle of UJ, the UP team won the Hackathon. The app will increase student self-awareness and collaboration, and close the information gap between the identified stakeholders. The linked website will showcase student’s capabilities and give industry the opportunity to select and employ students from this pool. The prize includes Erasmus funding to develop the app. The fourth Erasmus+ SUCSESS workshop will take place in Finland.