55 years
INTRODUCTION The ever-evolving landscape of career development and exploration necessitates dynamic and innovative approaches to guide students toward successful futures.
For more than 55 years the University of Cape Town (UCT) Career Services has demonstrated its commitment to this objective through its multifaceted initiatives and programs aimed at equipping students with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities needed to navigate their future career paths. By embracing the digital revolution, harnessing the power of virtual events, and leveraging strategic partnerships, the Service has consistently risen to the occasion, ensuring that students continue to receive valuable guidance and support regardless of the circumstances.
This fact is demonstrated in UCT Career Service receiving the South African Graduate Employers Association (SAGEA) Best Career Service award for 13 consecutive years.
From career expos that connect students with potential employers to fostering entrepreneurship skills and creating engaging digital experiences, the Service has shown a dedication to promoting a holistic approach to career development. This fact is demonstrated in UCT Career Service receiving the South African Graduate Employers Association (SAGEA) Best Career Service award for 13 consecutive years. In recent years the Service has continued its record of excellence, while navigating changes and challenges with noteworthy success. Through comprehensive resources, interactive events, individual consultations, and hands-on experiences, UCT Career Services has reaffirmed its commitment to preparing students for a 21st century career.
SUPPORTING STUDENTS TO ACHIEVE THEIR CAREER GOALS Career Consultations One-on-one consultations remain a staple of the UCT Career Services offering to students, providing each student with direct and tailored advise on their unique career path and opportunities, by a dedicated career consultant. Year-on-year hundreds of students make use of this service, as reflected in the number of consultations annually for 2017 (1016), 2018 (773) and 2019 (1107). In 2020 the Service faced a significant challenge in offering these consultations during lockdown, however successfully adapted to a virtual consultation model via MS Teams, Zoom, mobile calls, WhatsApp calls and email until pandemic restrictions were lifted in 2022. During this time UCT Career Service Career Advisors also developed digital resources and videos on a number of career topics which were then loaded onto Vula.
The shift to more asynchronous career content has allowed Career Advisors to spend time in consultations more effectively by addressing more targeted and personalised topics with students. Some of the resources that were created include, a six-part series on Own Your CV, an eight-part series on Own Your Selection Process and additional resourced like factsheets on Handling Job Offers and Making the most of a Virtual Expo.
CV Services Support with CV writing has been one of the most in-demand skills among final year students and graduates. The CV Labs provide expert careers advice directly to all faculties, where Careers Advisors set up in busy open areas for 2 hours over the lunchtime period, and students are able to bring their printed or electronic CVs for a 15-minute makeover. Between 2018 and 2019 the number of students that made use of the Labs increased from 210 to 482.
In 2020 only one face-to-face CV lab was held for students in the Humanities faculty, where a record number of 70 students were seen in two hours. That same year online CV labs were hosted at three virtual expos in July, August and in October. Between October and December 2020, 64 CVs were reviewed on dedicated CV Lab days. Furthermore, virtual CV labs continued in 2021 and 160 CVs were reviewed.
Mock Interviews The Mock Interview Programme offers students the chance to gain first-hand experience in interviewing, a high-value skill in the competitive job market. . In 2017 UCT Career Services worked with 7 companies to host 78 students for mock interviews. In 2018 the number of participants grew to 90, with a total of 24 recruiters. In 2019, there were 91 successful
applications for the mock interview programme and in 2020 this number further increased to 130 students. In 2021 the programme had 57 recruiters, with 112 students participating in virtual interviews over the year. This shows the consistent value that programme has delivered to students.
Bursaries As part of the UCT Career Service objective of supporting students in need of financial aid, the service has maintained an updated database of relevant bursaries and scholarships for several years. A particular emphasis has been placed on
identifying and uploading more advertisements online, with the number of ongoing bursaries and scholarships on the webpage increasing from 52 in 2017 to 135 by 2021.
This has translated into several dozen students benefitting from these financial aid programmes in 2017 (R28 million awarded), 2018 (R30 million awarded), 2019 (R44 million awarded) and 2020 (R31.5 million awarded). The Service has also worked closely with key partners to enhance the experiences of scholarship students. One example is through Mastercard Foundations Scholars Programme which has been running for several years. In 2018 there were 43 Mastercard scholarships granted to UCT students and 30 Scholars secured internships in 9 countries across the continent with the help of the Service. The following year 25 scholars secured internships and 53 scholarships were granted across faculties to students from 13 African countries. To date, 217 scholarships have been granted to UCT students.
Postgraduate Support To support postgraduate students, the Postgraduate Library & Information Science course (LISC) has been a tried and tested offering of the UCT Career Service. In 2021 the course consisted of a CV assignment and five asynchronous online career development presentations. Topics included Uncovering the career journey; Values, attributes, skills and motivation; CV workshop, Networking and LinkedIn and Preparing for Interviews.
The course content was revised and the Vula site was revamped. Students also attended a virtual live Graduate Panel conversation during which past LISC/PPDP students shared their career journey and the different roles they had held along the way with the current student cohort. In September 2020 the Service launched its virtual Finding Work Series, a new offering for postgraduate students attended by 321 students. An updated version of the FWS ran over both the first and second semesters in 2021 with 849 students in attendance. The Service’s virtual offering was further improved by adding the Career Development Series (CDS) which is more targeted at intermediate students. The CDS included webinars on Finding Vac Work, Applying for Student Jobs, CVs for Postgrad students, applying for bursaries/scholarships and applying for Postgrad Studies. The CDS ran over the first semester of 2021 and attended by 1405 students.
RECOGNISING STUDENT LEADERSHIP
The UCT Career Service encourages students to pursue extramural and leadership roles as a way of developing their skills and expanding their work experience.
The UCT Plus programme is one initiative that aims to recognise and reward the time and effort that students put into their leadership roles on campus. Since its inception in 2017 the programme has reached significant milestones. In its launch year 700 students had their leadership work recognised on their transcripts through he UCT Plus programme. By 2020 the number of students signed up had increased to 1500 with 690 students ultimately completing the programme and received UCT Plus awards. The Service also collaborated with the Surgical Society to create a special UCT Plus award category for students volunteering on clinical platforms. The COVID-19 Service Leadership Award was awarded to 55 students. By 2021 participation in the UCT Plus programme had surpassed all previous years, with 2545 students sign ups and 920 students completing the programme and receiving rewards.
EMPOWERING A GENERATION OF ENTREPRENEURS Recognizing the need for entrepreneurship skills among young professionals, UCT Careers Service has devoted itself to developing entrepreneurship among students in recent years.
Student Entrepreneurship Week This has been done by providing resources, training, and support to foster a culture of entrepreneurship and student entrepreneurial activity. In 2017 the Student Entrepreneurship Week (SEW) was hosted for the very first time as part of the UCT Career Festival. By the time of the second annual SEW attendance had nearly doubled from 730 attendees and 18 students showcasing their entrepreneurial projects in 2017 to 1485 attendees and 32 showcases in 2018. This positive trend demonstrated the appetite for a greater focus on entrepreneurship as a route for career development. In the years that followed the Career Service expanded on these initial successes to foster strategic partnerships with, among others, the Raymond Ackerman Academy of Entrepreneurial Development, the UCT GSB Solution Space, the Entrepreneurship Development in Higher
Education programme spearheaded by the Department of Higher Education & Training, d-school Afrika and the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. In 2021 the SEW was further expanded, showcasing the work of UCT students who completed their time with the Jim Leech Mastercard Foundation fellowship and a UCT graduate, Titose Chembezi, was the overall winner for the Africa chapter of the fellowship.
Flux Our annual FLUX entrepreneurship business game has been running since 2014 in collaboration with employers. UCT students from across faculties and years of study form teams that compete against one another to create a winning business idea which solves a real-world challenge. During the full day game, students are advised by a range of employer specialists who also select a winning team. The popular game, with a cash prize, encourages students to think
strategically, collaboratively and with a spirit of entrepreneurship, while creating a viable business model. The experience supports the development of our students by improving skills and confidence, as well as exposing them to professionals. From 2017 to 2019 the Service has invited more than 100 students annually to participate in the event.
Supporting ‘Studentpreneurs’ The impact of the UCT Career Services’ entrepreneurial work has further been demonstrated in the university’s involvement and performance at the Intervarsity Entrepreneurship Challenge. In 2019 UCT hosted the inaugural regional Intervarsity Entrepreneurship Challenges that saw 11 students from UCT going headto-head with competitors from institutions like Stellenbosch University, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and the University of the Western Cape. Overall, 26 universities and 115 ‘studentpreneurs’ from the various universities participated in this event. The event has since become an important benchmark for the quality of entrepreneurship support and development opportunities provided to students by the UCT Career Services. In 2020 and 2021 the Intervarsity event was hosted online due to the lockdown restrictions; however, this did not derail the Services’ ambitions to support UCT entrepreneurs. Presenting a business online
is a novel skill and UCT finalists were directly supported by Career Service to refine their online business pitches. In the process, Careers Service created a rubric to assess first-round presentations. The rubric continues to be adopted by other universities participating in the Entrepreneurship Intervarsity.
IN 2019 FOUR STUDENTS PROGRESSED TO THE FINAL ROUND OF THE NATIONAL COMPETITION: Mvelo Hlophe, won the Existing Business: Social Impact category, and was named the inaugural winner of the national Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award Denislav Marinov, won the Existing Technological Business category Lungile Macuacua, in the Innovative Ideas category Vuako Khosa, in the Business General category
IN 2020 THREE STUDENTS PROGRESSED TO THE FINAL ROUND OF THE NATIONAL COMPETITION:
IN 2021 THREE STUDENTS PROGRESSED TO THE FINAL ROUND OF THE NATIONAL COMPETITION:
Ndabenhle Ntshangase, in the General Business category Qhawe Bula, in the New Business Ideas category Moeketsi Mashibini, in the Social Impact Business category
Vuthlarhi Shirindza and Tshegofatso Masenya of were both winners in the Existing Business Social Impact category, with Tshegofatso walking away with the national Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Chido Dzinotyiwei, won in the Existing Business Tech category. UCT received the 2021 Entrepreneur University of the Year Award.
IN 2022 THREE STUDENTS PROGRESSED TO THE FINAL ROUND OF THE NATIONAL COMPETITION:
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Matimba Mabonda won both the overall title of Studentpreneur of the Year and the New Business Ideas category. Nicoline Kriek won the Existing Business – General category Asonele Gevenga was named winner of the Existing Business – Tech category UCT received the 2022 Entrepreneur University of the Year Award.
Mainstreaming Entrepreneurship in Higher Education UCT Career Services continues to play a leading role in mainstreaming entrepreneurship for career development in the South African higher education sector. In 2018 the Service participated in the Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education Lekgotla (EDHE), which hosted 26 universities identify challenges and brainstorm ways to address these challenges in the entrepreneurship development space in higher education. In 2019, with support of the ViceChancellor’s Office, the Careers Service played an integral role in coordinating a qualitative research project to map UCT’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. The study ambitiously sought to present a map which would allow for both gap analysis and creating awareness of existing initiatives.
One of the key themes that emerged was the different “systems of entrepreneurship” that exist within the UCT ecosystem. Recommendations that emerged from the research included the need for a more coordinated and centralised approach to entrepreneurship at UCT, an increase in opportunities for student entrepreneurs to network, and adding an element of entrepreneurship to some degrees. In subsequent years the UCT Career Service has shared its knowledge and experiences. In 2021 the collaboration between universities resulted in the Student Entrepreneurs Community of Practice (CoP) and Studentrepreneur CoP jointly hosted a ThinkTank session, in which the UCT Career Service participated and shared some of its own key learnings.
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EMBRACING DIGITAL TOOLS FOR CAREER EMPOWERMENT Careers Service Website The UCT Career Services website is an important avenue for students to learn about the UCT Careers Service and its work, while accessing a wide range of resources for personal and career development. This includes but is not limited to career mapping tools, alumni resources, employer and job listing, faculty-specific career resources, media publications and event advertisements. The webpage has served a dynamic and strategic role in Career Service’s engagement with the broader student community. In 2017 the website had over 25 000 visitors. The following year the site saw 11 800 returning visitors and 17 800 new visitors, demonstrating the sites utility to both old and new students. In light of its ongoing relevance as a career resource, the UCT Careers Service launched a new page
on the website in 2019, “Earn as You Learn”, that provides information about finding work off-campus. “Earn as You Learn”, that provides information about finding work off-campus. Another addition to the website was the Course Mapping Tool aimed at helping preuniversity seekers and students predict a possible career at the end of their degree. At the peak of the pandemic in 2020 the website experienced nearly 28 000 unique student logins, showing how helpful students found this resource during a time when in-person access to professional development opportunities was severely limited.
Vula During the 2020/2021 period of remote teaching and learning, many students experienced data issues and were not able to access MyCareer or our website, neither of which were zero rated for data. The Career Service once again embraced this challenge and took the initiative to migrate its resources to Vula, ensuring ongoing access for students to valuable career resources. In its first year the Vula site had 11 460 unique visitors and the most popular resource was “Creating a great CV”. In 2021 the Vula site was refreshed every semester with new graphics on the home page as well as the tabs on the sidebar. This allowed
the service to successfully create a dynamic experience for students on Vula. During the first semester, the information on the homepage was tailored toward informing First Years about the ways they could reach us while they waited to again access to MyCareer. During the second semester, with the focus shifting to Recruitment, the information on the homepage was targeted to final-year students and included resources for applying for jobs, career expos and MyCareer.
Emails Emails remain an important tool for getting information about opportunities to students in a fast and efficient manner. In recent years the Service has prioritised developing more targeted strategies for emailing , to ensure that students receive information that’s relevant to their interests and field of study. As a result of this the overall number of emails sent has decreased, going from approximately 695 emails in 2017 to 281 emails sent in 2021, while the types of emails being sent has become more diverse. This includes faculty specific newsletters, which have increased in number to a total of 94 newsletters being sent and read by over 10 000 students in 2021 alone.
UCT App The UCT App is a common tool for students to learn about opportunities within the university. The Career Service tile on the app has consistently experienced positive trends in student engagement, featuring in the top 10 clicked tiles for the overall app for several years.
Social Media Social media is a powerful tool for reaching and engaging with the student community. In the last few years the UCT Career Service has expanded its footprint on social media, while also prioritising the most impactful strategies for bridging the gap between students and career opportunities. Between 2018 and 2021 the Career Services twitter account grew from 3400 to 4385 followers while the Instagram account doubled from 632 to 1486 followers. In 2020 Career Services successfully launched an official LinkedIn page and migrated to more videobased-content by giving greater attention to developing and sharing resources on YouTube. This new approach coincided with the need for more online engagement with students in light of the pandemic lockdown period.
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OPENING NEW CAREER HORIZONS Career Expos remain a key part of the UCT Career Services, providing students with opportunities to explore new career paths and engage directly with potential employers.
Career Expos & Showcases In recent years the expos are a tried and tested platform for student development, the Service has still worked to enhance the value and impact of its offering, promoting quality over quantity and achieving greater reach. From 2017 to 2018 the UCT Career Services reduced the number of expos hosted annually from nine to four. This included the first ever Epic Job Expo attended by over 4000 students and 100 exhibitors, demonstrating its value to students, recruiters and employers. The expo offering further maintained its impact for more specialised fields by hosting separate expos for accounting, law and internships.
In 2020 COVID-19 pandemic posed a unique challenge for the Service to find new and innovative ways of serving the student community on and off campus. This resulted in the Service hosting its first-ever online expos, including a Law expo with 415 attendees, Accounting expo with 315 attendees and the Epic Job Expo with 2739 attendees. The virtual expos enabled UCT students to get access to valuable career opportunities and knowledge at a time when many did not have the benefit of building professional networks physically on campus. This trend continued into 2021 with expos hosted entirely online, further showing the Career Service team’s agility and ability to evolve its offerings in response to the needs of students. Attendance for each of the Expos hosted in 2021 increased from the previous year, showing the utility of these expos for students. This included the Internship expo with 1454 attendees, the Law expo hosting 606 attendees, Accounting expo with 889 attendees and the, Epic Job Expo with 3795 attendees.
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UCT Career Guide The UCT Career Guide has also been an important resource developed annually by the UCT CS team. In recent years the digitalisation of this resource has proven successful in providing more students with career opportunities, insights and trends. In line with its emphasis on the importance of entrepreneurship the 2019 UCT Career Guide included Entrepreneurship Gallery, where young business minds reflected on their work journeys. The following year the publication was published in digital format only, for the first time, as the lockdown meant that the printed guide could not be distributed on campus. The digital guide featured sections on Future skills, a Career Toolkit, student entrepreneurship and the graduate gallery with stories about graduates and their career journeys. The Guide also features an employer directory with hundreds of graduate opportunities and up to 4000 reads. In 2021 the publication stayed virtual and over received over 9300 reads, demonstrating both the value that the guide had for UCT students as well as the guide’s successful digitalisation.
Career Conversations In an attempt to provide students and graduates with a deeper understanding on how to translate their skills and degree knowledge into the working work the UCT CS launched its Career Conversations initiative. The Career Conversation invites postgraduate panellists to reflect on their careers, talk about the skills that their studies equipped them with and how they applied this in their working lives. In 2019 the Service expanded its Career Conversations to the EBE and Law faculties for the first time. In the Science faculty, the Career Conversations evening was expanded to 6 panels attended by 306 students, and 3 separate Humanities events were held to illustrate the broad and diverse nature of graduate journeys. A Career Conversations panel was held for postgraduates interested in consulting, as well as one for Biomedical Engineering graduates. In light of the COVID19 lockdown a virtual Career Conversations series was hosted in 2020, allowing for a
larger pool of graduates who could share their career journeys. Some of the thematic areas covered during the online series included, My Career in the Energy Sector My Environmental Career, Why a Humanities Degree is still Relevant in a Technical World, Transitioning Beyond UCT as an International Student, My Career using my Writing skills My Career in Biological Sciences, My Career in Social Justice, My Career Working with Water, and My Career in Biomedical Sciences and Pathology. In 2021 UCT CS continued hosting panels on a wide range of topics covering different specialised career fields, My Career in Engineering in the Built Environment, Managing my Own Practice, My Career in Social Justice, My Career in Climate Change, My Career in Health, Engineering and Technology, My Career in Social Development, My Career with Anatomy and Physiology, My Career in Film and Media, My Career in Learning Design.
Careers Discovery As part of the UCT CS mission of helping students think more creatively about their career paths, the service has worked closely with other stakeholders in the university to reach more students. In 2017 Commerce EDU modules were combined with the MyCareer Cogs online modules, aimed at helping students in the programme develop supplementary skill necessary in career planning. Overall, 311 students completed the modules in 2017 and 334 students in 2018. Drawing on the lessons from the previous cohorts enhanced modules were developed on Vula in 2019 to supplement the classes, and (for the first time) these online modules were made available to first-year students in all faculties. A total of 346 students attended the course run for Commerce EDU in 2019 and 342 in 2020. Since these initial successes of the asynchronous course on Career Discovery the additional content was developed specifically for students in the Science and Humanities faculties.
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CONCLUSION UCT Career Services has consistently demonstrated its commitment to supporting students in achieving their career goals through a diverse range of initiatives and services.
The dedication to personalized guidance through one-on-one consultations, even in challenging times like the pandemic, has proven to be invaluable to students' career paths. The focus on enhancing essential skills such as CV writing and interview preparation has empowered students to confidently enter the competitive job market. The Service's efforts in promoting entrepreneurship have not only encouraged innovation but have also created platforms like the Student Entrepreneurship Week and the Entrepreneurship Intervarsity Challenge, which have nurtured a new generation of studentpreneurs. The recognition of the evolving digital landscape led to the expansion of CareerHub, the Career Services Website, and other digital tools, ensuring that students can access resources and opportunities conveniently.
The dedication to student development extends beyond individual consultations, encompassing career expos, showcases, and insightful Career Conversations. The continuous adaptation of these offerings, whether through virtual expos during lockdowns or the dynamic Career Conversations series, showcases the Service's responsiveness to student needs. Furthermore, UCT Career Services' collaborative approach with other faculties, initiatives like UCT Plus, and partnerships with external organizations highlights its commitment to holistic student development. The emphasis on financial support through bursaries and scholarships, as well as
fostering student leadership through initiatives like the UCT Plus programme, showcases a comprehensive approach to empowerment. In essence, UCT Career Services has consistently evolved its strategies, harnessed digital tools, and created diverse opportunities, demonstrating a steadfast commitment to empowering students on their career journeys. Through personalized guidance, skills development, entrepreneurship promotion, and innovative platforms, the Service has played a pivotal role in shaping the future trajectories of UCT students, preparing them for success in their chosen paths.
Cover photograph by Harriet Comley All other photographs used throughout the publication are courtesy of UCT Communications and Marketing Department
www.careers.uct.ac.za careers.service@uct.ac.za +27 (0)21 650 2497 @UCTCareers @UCTCareersService @UCTCareersService
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