Enhancing Graduate Employability: Inculcating Soft Skills into the Tertiary Institutions’ Curriculum

Abstract

The perennial issue of graduate employability remains topical in today’s turbulent labour market environment. Most graduates bear the brunt of unemployment especially in developing countries. Most qualifications offered by higher education institutions specifically focus on technical skills. With the unremitting demands of soft skills in the corporate world, there is a widespread concern and transcending need for the redesign of the curriculum to inculcate the soft skills. In dynamic environment, the tertiary institutions are required to produce highly competent graduates to bode well and meet the relentless demands of South African economy. An avalanche of diversification, globalisation, internationalisation of workplaces has a strong bearing on skill sets employees are expected to possess in South Africa. Against this backdrop, the study sought to investigate soft skills that can be inculcated into the South African’s Tertiary Institutions curriculum to improve graduate employability. Using systematic review method, a total of 85 peer reviewed articles were considered as final studies for review to achieve the primary objective of this paper. From the content analysis, the findings revealed several soft skills. The paper also gave directions on how soft skills can be embedded into the university curricula to prepare graduates for the world of work.