Assessing the employability and employment destinations of professional psychology alumni

Abstract

Professional training in psychology typically focuses on competencies and learning outcomes. However, this does not necessarily translate into long-term employability. Graduate tracer studies are recommended for exploring employment destinations and employability. Graduate tracer studies are noted to be of particular use for investigating health professionals’ career paths and examining field-specific issues. The reported study examined the employability and employment destinations of 29 alumni from two psychology Master’s programmes at a South African higher education institution, by incorporating best practices for tracer studies and survey research. Results indicated that 86.2% had secured employment in various fields and sectors, suggesting their skills and training were relevant and transferable. Differential patterns of registration with the Health Professions Council of South Africa were reported. Most respondents identified their studies as closely related to their work, and pragmatic reasons were provided by those pursuing work in unrelated fields. Entrepreneurial skills were identified as a gap in their training, that, if included, has the potential to boost employability. Graduate employability was identified to be a complex, non-linear issue. Professional competencies are, therefore, not sufficient for conceptualising employability within the South African context. A broader and more nuanced understanding of employability is needed. Practically, this means that educational processes need to prepare students for securing long-term employment. The tracer study methodology applied in this study may be utilised by other institutions and disciplines to explore key issues of employment and employability in the South African health professions and higher education context.

Keywords

Alumni research employment destinations graduate employability graduate tracer studies professional psychology

The Council on Higher Education (CHE, 2014) defines student success, in relation to improved graduate throughput, as ‘enhanced student learning with a view to increasing the number of graduates with attributes that are personally, professionally and socially valuable’ (p. 13). The mandate to produce skilled graduates thus makes graduate attributes or competencies important indicators of quality assurance in the higher education sector (Bitzer & Withering, 2020). However, there is noted difficulty in operationalising competencies, as they are context-dependent, developed longitudinally, and often abstract, including attitudes, understanding, and abilities (Bitzer & Withering, 2020; Cavanagh et al., 2015). An alternative to focusing on competencies is to examine employment destinations and employability as a means of determining institutional success. The identified role of higher education in preparing graduates for employment, particularly in the context of high unemployment, has given rise to international concern regarding the employability of graduates (Goodman & Tredway, 2016; Kaburise, 2016). The discourse around employability has moved towards a broader definition, that goes beyond the acquisition of skills and competencies (Guilbert et al., 2016). This broader definition additionally takes the nature and demand of the labour market, as well as individual circumstances into account (McQuaid & Lindsay, 2005; Tomlinson, 2017). Employability constitutes the ability to obtain relevant and meaningful employment throughout life, and therefore may fluctuate over time (Griesel & Parker, 2009; Pitan, 2016). Much research on employability has been conducted internationally, yet little has been operationalised in the South African context.

Alumni-based research, which gathers information from graduates with regard to their employment destinations and training relevance, has been noted to be a vital tool for investigating market relevance and curriculum evaluation (Cape Higher Education Consortium [CHEC], 2013; Mubuuke et al., 2014). Graduate tracer studies are well suited to exploring issues related to employability (Schomburg, 2016). There has been limited implementation of graduate tracer study research outside of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, despite international interest in the field and its noted benefits. Within the South African context, there has been sporadic implementation of institutional or departmental tracer studies (CHEC, 2013), ostensibly due to a lack of resources (Du Toit et al., 2014). There have also been notably fewer tracer studies conducted at historically disadvantaged institutions (HDIs), potentially due to resource constriction (Du Toit et al., 2014). Research in the South African higher education sector has focused on issues influencing the transition from secondary to tertiary education (Cosser & Nenweli, 2013; Setlalentoa, 2013). The relatively small field of research focusing on the transition from higher education into the labour market has largely focused on undergraduate student populations (Griesel & Parker, 2009; Rogan & Reynolds, 2016). Studies focusing on the employment destinations and transitions of postgraduate students have been identified as a gap in the literature (Albertyn et al., 2008; Senekal, 2018). Graduate tracer studies have been recommended for examining field-specific issues, and may be of particular benefit for the field of health professions education (Mubuuke et al., 2014).

There is a noted shortage of posts for psychologists within the public health sector (Mashigo, 2017). As such, the access of the population to health care services is limited, as mental health care services are typically clustered in the private sector (Cooper, 2014). According to Pillay and Kramers-Olen (2014), employment patterns for psychologists are racialised and gendered. In addition, non-completion (Offord, 2016) and stringent selection processes (Ahmed & Pillay, 2004) are but some of the identified reasons for the noted vulnerability of psychology graduates in terms of accessing employment (Kagee & O’Donovan, 2011). Thus, it becomes important to examine the relevance of training received in this context to ensure that graduates are appropriately trained and ready to be absorbed into the labour market.

To this end, this article reports on a graduate tracer study conducted with professional postgraduate alumni in the field of psychology from a specific institution. The study aimed to investigate the employment destinations and relevance of training received by graduates from the professional structured Master’s degrees in clinical and research psychology from a South African HDI. This article highlights the utility of department-based studies for identifying more meaningful and nuanced patterns of employability. In addition, the study reported may serve as a guide for implementing tracer study research for use in health professions training and other disciplines, to explore key issues of employability, and by extension, the evaluation of the labour market relevance of higher education training in the South African context.

Method

Participants

The Department of Psychology at a research-intensive HDI was selected as the research setting. This allowed for the accommodation of field-specific issues and accounted for limited resource capacity in the South African higher education landscape (Senekal & Munro, 2019). HDIs are noted to have student populations aligned with national targets, attracting more students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds and first-generation students (Department of Higher Education and Training [DHET], 2012). As such, the selected institution is a suitable location for studying issues related to student success. Graduates from the clinical and research psychology Master’s degrees from the identified university constituted the target population of the study. Alumni who graduated between 2008 and 2014 formed the sampling frame and represented those who graduated between 3 and 8 years before the time of the survey. This inclusion criterion was consistent with the recommendation of Purcell and Elias (2004) who found that immediate employment destinations (i.e., within 2 years of graduation) were not representative of longer-term employment trends.

The sampling frame was compiled from public graduation records for the relevant years. A total population of 113 graduates was identified, including 58 clinical graduates and 55 research graduates. Survey research, and graduate tracer studies in particular, have noted issues of low response rates, ostensibly due to incomplete and inaccurate alumni records (Hayati & Muchlish, 2013). Senekal and Munro (2019) highlight the importance of consolidating various information sources to increase sample access. To ensure that the sampling frame was as complete as possible, graduation records were reconciled against departmental records. Contact details were extracted and supplemented by staff members. During data collection, participants were invited to supplement the sampling frame by providing updated contact details for their cohort. In total, contact details were sourced for 58 graduates (29 from each programme), who formed the final sampling frame (51.33% of the population). A convenience sample was used, as only those members of the population for whom updated contact details were available were invited to participate. The resultant sample was 29 complete responses, with 13 respondents from the clinical programme (44.85%) and 16 respondents from the research programme (55.17%). The overall response rate for the study was 50% of the sampling frame. The proportion of the population included (25.33%) may be considered high, particularly for graduate tracer studies.

Instrument

Survey designs are typically used in graduate tracer studies (Mubuuke et al., 2014). A cross-sectional survey was self-administered online via the SurveyMonkey platform. The study utilised an adaptation of the Standard Instrument for Graduates (Schomburg, 1995). Various versions of this instrument have been used in international tracer studies in both developed and developing countries (Mugabushaka et al., 2003; Schomburg, 2016), but it had not been used in South Africa. Permission to use and adapt the instrument was obtained from the author. Best practice recommendations for tracer study research utilising the Standard Instrument for Graduates encourage adaptation of the instrument for context relevance (Schomburg, 2016). Relevant sections of the Standard Instrument for Graduates, based on the study objectives and the theoretical framework, were extracted and compiled into a draft survey. The draft was edited for contextual relevance – both to the South African context and the field of psychology. To ensure validity, only key contextual elements (e.g., South African income tax brackets) were edited, retaining as much of the original content as possible. A tracking table of all changes and rationales for changes made was kept. The instrument was loaded onto SurveyMonkey in preparation for administration. The draft survey was piloted and tested by three individuals, on various mediums, including cell phones and laptops. Table 1 (below) provides a summary of the sections and domains included in the questionnaire. Note that not all results are reported in this article.

Table 1.

Summary of sections and domains in the questionnaire.

Survey section	Domains covered
1. Demographic information	Gender, age, nationality, current residence, and parental education level
2. Relationship between study and work	Competencies, the preparatory capacity of the degree programme, and the relation of study to work
3. Marketability	Job search, aspects important for marketability, and attitudes towards continuous professional development
4. Most recent or current employment	Current dominant activity, most recent employment, income tax bracket, and Health Professions Council of South Africa registration
5. Retrospective assessment of institution	Evaluation of provisions of the institution, and the usefulness of the degree
6. Comments or suggestions	Any additional comments related to the topic

Reliability assessment, using Cronbach’s α to assess internal consistency, was conducted of the scales in the survey. Scores above 0.70 were achieved by all the scales, which is an indication of good reliability within the sample, despite the small sample size (Field et al., 2012). Prior to this study, reliability statistics of the Standard Instrument for Graduates were not available. These good reliability scores indicate that this instrument may be reliably adapted and used in the South African context.

Procedure

The survey was a self-administered, online survey hosted on SurveyMonkey. An invitation with information about the study was sent to the sampling frame, including a link to the survey. The survey was live for 7 weeks, between March and May 2017. In alignment with best practice recommendations for increasing response rates (Senekal & Munro, 2019), weekly reminders were sent to respondents who had not yet completed the survey, until there was no change in response rate. These reminders were sent based on their response status, recorded through SurveyMonkey, maintaining the anonymity of participants. The survey offered incentives in the form of a lottery for book vouchers to boost response rates: two during the survey and one at the close of the survey.

Ethical considerations

Ethics clearance was obtained from the Humanities and Social Science Research Ethics Committee of the University of the Western Cape (HS/16/3/41). Permission was obtained from the Registrar to conduct the study, and all ethics principles were upheld (Babbie, 2016). The first question in the survey was one of informed consent, which if declined, automatically exited the survey. Participants could withdraw at any stage without negative consequences, and their confidentiality and anonymity were maintained. All data were securely stored.

Data analysis

Incomplete responses and out of scope respondents were excluded in the process of cleaning the data. Descriptive statistical analysis was used, as the data did not support inferential analysis. The statistical power of the study was limited, due to an incomplete sampling frame.

Results

Demographics

Gender

Most of the respondents from the research programme identified as female (n = 14) with the remaining two identifying as male. A more even split of seven females to five males was seen among the respondents from the clinical programme. The remaining respondent from the clinical programme identified as having a non-conforming gender identity.

Age

At the time of completing the survey, the mean age of respondents was 34 years old (n = 29). In both groups, the youngest respondents were 28, and the oldest respondents were in their fifties. Most respondents were in their mid-to-late twenties when they enrolled in their Master’s degree programme. Time to completion of the degree was approximately 2–3 years, with age at completion clustered in their late twenties.

Nationality and residence

Most respondents were South African (n = 26). One of the respondents from the clinical programme was Namibian and two of the respondents from the research programme were Zimbabwean. Most of the respondents were currently residing in the Western Cape of South Africa (n = 24), while three were in other South African provinces, one in Namibia and one in the Middle East.

Parental education

Respondents indicated the educational level achieved by their mothers and fathers. These data were cross-tabulated to identify first-generation students, that is, neither parent completed higher education (Table 2). About a third of the respondents were first-generation students (n = 11), including five respondents from the clinical programme and six respondents from the research programme. Eight respondents from the research stream and three respondents from the clinical stream had one parent who completed higher education and one parent who had not. Both parents had completed higher education for the remaining five respondents from the clinical programme and two respondents from the research programme.

Table 2.

Parental education levels.

Education level	Clinical Master’s (n = 13)	Research Master’s (n = 16)
Neither parent with complete HE	5	6
One with complete HE, one without	3	8
Both parents with complete HE	5	2

HE: higher education.

Health Professions Council of South Africa registration category

All but one of the respondents from the clinical programme (n = 12) were registered as clinical psychologists with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). The respondent who was not registered, was not currently residing in South Africa, which may account for the lack of registration. It was not known whether this individual was registered with the relevant professional organisation in their country of residence. The respondents from the research programme held a variety of registrations with the HPCSA. Six were registered as research psychologists, and one was registered as a psychometrist. Three respondents held dual registrations as both research psychologist and registered counsellor. Six respondents from the research programme were not registered with the HPCSA.

Preparatory capacity of degree

Both Master’s programmes were generally considered to have prepared the respondents sufficiently to access initial employment (Table 3). Furthermore, respondents indicated that their studies prepared them for performing their current work tasks, as well as continuous learning and development on the job, and in terms of future career potential. The Master’s degrees were further considered to contribute to the personal development of the respondents. A potential gap in the training was the development of entrepreneurial skills, with 11 respondents feeling that they were poorly prepared in this area. Only six felt they were well-prepared, with the remaining 12 providing a neutral response.

Table 3.

Preparatory capacity of degree.

Responses	Poor preparation	Neutral	Good preparation
Development of entrepreneurial skills	11	12	6
Starting work	1	5	23
Potential or future career(s)	2	3	24
Performing current work tasks	1	3	25
Further learning on the job	0	3	26
Personal development	0	3	26

Dominant activity

The majority (86.2%) of the respondents were employed at the time of the survey. Ten of the respondents from the clinical Master’s and eleven of the respondents from the research Master’s were employed in businesses. Three respondents from the clinical programme were self-employed. Two respondents from the research programme were primarily pursuing advanced academic studies. One respondent from the research stream was primarily engaged in family responsibilities. One respondent from the research stream was employed, pursuing advanced academic study, and engaged in family responsibilities. Only one respondent from the research Master’s was unemployed and seeking employment.

Current or most recent employment

Respondents were requested to indicate in which sector they were currently or most recently employed. A large proportion of the respondents were employed in the public sector (n = 17) including eight of the respondents from the clinical Master’s and nine of the respondents from the research Master’s. Four of the respondents from the clinical stream and three of the respondents from the research stream were employed in the private sector. The remaining respondent from the clinical programme was employed at a non-governmental organisation (NGO). Two respondents from the research programme were employed at NGOs, and two respondents were employed at parastatal institutions.

The respondents were employed in a variety of fields. Most of the respondents from the clinical programme were employed in helping professions, including health (n = 8), early childhood development (n = 1), basic education (n = 1), correctional services (n = 1), and social services (n = 1). The respondents from the research programme were employed in a range of fields, including higher education (n = 6), research (n = 4), policy (n = 2), health (n = 2), corporate (n = 1), and social development (n = 1).

Relation of study to work

All of the respondents from the clinical programme (n = 13) and most of the respondents from the research programme (n = 12) felt that their work was closely related to their field of study. Four graduates from the research programme felt that their work was not aligned to their studies. They provided pragmatic reasons for working in a field that they considered to be unrelated to their training, for example, taking family responsibilities into account, job security, location, flexibility, higher earning potential, promotion, or not being able to find more suitable employment.

Discussion

The survey provided demographic information about the alumni, including their HPCSA registration status. Their employability may be inferred by integrating their perception of the extent to which their degree programme prepared them for the workplace, their current employment status, employment sector, and field of work, as well as the perceived relevance of their study programme to their work. The employability framework by McQuaid and Lindsay (2005) was utilised to nominally interpret these results.

Demographics of graduates

The gender demographics represented by the respondents in the study aligned with national and international research, that identifies a greater proportion of females in the field of clinical psychology (Pillay & Kramers-Olen, 2014 ). The greater proportion of males among the respondents from the clinical programme may be an indication of attempts to address this disparity through programme selection processes. However, this may be response bias based on gender rather than being representative of the population. The female-dominated pattern appears to exist among research psychologists, as well as clinical psychologists.

The nationalities of the sample align with the institutional demographics, reflecting mainly South African nationals, with a small representation of SADC (Southern African Development Community) nationals (DHET, 2017). There appears to be minimal migration of skills, as most of the individuals remained in the province where their Master’s degrees were conferred. The reasons for remaining in this province were not explored.

This study has a substantial representation of first-generation students: about a third of the respondents. These first-generation students completed their bachelor’s and honour’s degrees, as well as a Master’s degree in a professional field. The relatively high representation of first-generation students in the sample may reflect institutional demographics. According to DHET (2012), HDIs are noted to have student population demographics more closely aligned with national demographics, and attract a higher proportion of first-generation students and students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. The results here contradict literature indicating that first-generation students have access to less social capital, and struggle to achieve higher educational levels (Siyengo, 2015; Van Zyl, 2013). The results in this study suggest that educational potential is determined by the interaction of various factors, not just social capital in the form of parental education, that enabled these students to achieve their professional postgraduate degrees. This aligns with the theory of employability, which is seen as an interaction of various factors, not just a single contributing factor (McQuaid & Lindsay, 2005; Tomlinson, 2017).

HPCSA registration

There was a clear link between the clinical Master’s degree programme and the professional registration category, likely due to the imperative to complete registration to secure employment. All but one of the respondents from the clinical Master’s programme retained the professional registration as clinical psychologists, while being employed in a variety of fields and sectors. Conversely, the respondents from the research programme held a variety of registrations with the HPCSA. It is possible that respondents who pursued dual registration (as registered counsellor as well as research psychologist) may have been considered appropriate due to the type of research engaged in, or to improve employability. About a third of the respondents from the research programme were not registered with the HPCSA. The results suggest that registration with the HPCSA did not preclude employment as researchers. The oversight of the HPCSA is not a prerequisite for conducting research: institutional or independent ethics review boards govern engagement in research (Babbie, 2016). Thus, employability for the research graduates was not contingent on registration, as it was for the clinical cohort. The respondents from the research programme reported employment in a variety of fields, some of which were unrelated to their training. As such, some of the respondents may not have been utilising their research skills directly. The factors influencing the pursuit of registration among research graduates remain a focus of further investigation.

Accessing employment

The Master’s degrees may be considered to have prepared individuals for accessing initial employment as well as remaining relevant in employment. Identity-related psychological attributes, including self-efficacy and self-esteem, are linked with the investment and effort exerted in job seeking, and thus are important for transitioning into employment (Guilbert et al., 2016). As such, the training received has good labour market relevance, and prepared graduates well for the transition into the workplace.

An identified gap in the training provided in both programmes was that of entrepreneurial skills training. The lack of perceived development of entrepreneurial skills may be considered a reason for why only three of the respondents, all of whom were from the clinical programme, were self-employed at the time of completing the survey. Two of the three respondents who were self-employed as registered clinicians, were female, and none of them were first-generation students. This suggests that historical disadvantage, proxied through parental education level, may have restricted the ability to access self-employment.

A respondent from the clinical Master’s programme highlighted that ‘the study programme offered no input on business management or creating self-employment. This should be integral to any profession that may lead to self-employment’. It may have been that self-employment was less accessible to the respondents, due to the lack of entrepreneurial skills development, and/or a lack of access to the resources required to start a private practice (DeAngelis, 2011).

Employment destinations

Almost two-thirds of the respondents from the clinical programme were employed in the public sector. The respondents may have had access to junior public sector employment, as they were early on in their careers. Early career professionals may not have the levels of experience, networks, and financial and social capital required to establish private practices or engage the private sector (DeAngelis, 2011). The findings of this study contradict assertions in the literature that clinical psychologists are clustered in the private sector (Cooper, 2014; Department of Health [DoH], 2013). The apparent contradiction between the findings of this study and general findings in the literature could be attributed to patterned ways in which institutions and demographics contribute to the aggregated employment statistics. As such, this may be due to the inherent differences in the present cohort at an institutional level. Thus, it becomes evident that institution-based studies, such as this, may provide a more meaningful and nuanced profile of employability patterns.

The identified difficulties of accessing self-employment in the private sector may be a contributing factor for the greater proportion of this cohort being clustered in the public sector. The population demographics of the university, an HDI, tend to have a larger representation of students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. As such, it is possible that transformative employment initiatives may have successfully increased access to employment in the public sector for those respondents from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. The nature of the labour market, including transformative initiatives, therefore does appear to influence employability, as posited by McQuaid and Lindsay (2005), by creating an enabling or supportive environment for students (Pitan, 2016). There was no indication of the employment sectors of research psychologists in the literature; however, the trend of clustering in the public sector mirrors that of the respondents from the clinical programme.

Skills transferability

The employment patterns across a variety of fields suggest that the skills respondents possessed were transferable. Skill transferability is considered as an indication of long-term employability, for accessing a range of employment opportunities and fields (McQuaid & Lindsay, 2005). Conceptually, it is the transferability of skills, not merely the possession of skills, that is posited to determine employability (Cavanagh et al., 2015). This suggests that for the respondents, the transferability of the skills obtained through study may improve their access to employment opportunities.

However, it may be that these skills were transferable, only within fields that are related to their field of study. While respondents’ skills may be transferable to a variety of fields, respondents considered those fields to be closely linked to the training they had received. This was true of all the clinical psychology graduates and most of the research psychology graduates. The four respondents who pursued work that they felt was unrelated to their studies did so for pragmatic reasons. This included personal factors (family responsibilities, flexibility, job security, and advancement) as well as contextual factors, relating to not being able to find more suitable employment. These factors may represent barriers for these individuals to access what may be considered relevant employment, thus impacting their employability. This finding aligns with the broader definition of employability that highlights the influence of personal and contextual factors in determining what employment opportunities may be considered accessible (Guilbert et al., 2016; Pitan, 2016). Some of the respondents highlighted the scarcity of employment opportunities in the field of research psychology, which underlines the effect of the labour market on employability (McQuaid & Lindsay, 2005). Further investigation into the scarcity of employment opportunities for research psychologists is warranted.

The results of the study were limited to descriptive analysis, due to the small sample size and incomplete sampling frame. This resulted in limited statistical power, therefore not supporting inferential analysis. Incomplete records affecting sample size and response rate are a common issue in tracer study research, and efforts were made to ensure as complete a sampling frame as possible. As such, the findings of this study may not be extrapolated beyond the sample.

Conclusion

The study found that graduate tracer studies may be successfully and meaningfully applied in the South African context to explore context-relevant and field-specific issues. In this study, graduates from professional Master’s degrees found their training to be relevant and felt they were prepared to enter the world of work. An area identified as a gap, was that of entrepreneurial skills training, which could further enhance the employability of graduates. They were found to have skills that were transferable and relevant to various professions, fields, and sectors. They were therefore considered to be employable; however, this must be considered in light of the complex and fluctuating nature of employability. The use of an employability framework enabled a brief exploration of the nuanced nature of employability, particularly as it related to those who are not employed in fields related to their study programme. In some cases, employability was not a linear concept, and it was influenced by various factors, including family responsibility, employment location, and earning potential. Consequently, it is not sufficient to conceptualise graduate employability in terms of professional competencies alone. A broader understanding of employability is needed, such as that put forward by McQuaid and Lindsay (2005), which integrates the mediating effects of individual circumstances and labour market dynamics on the long-term employability of individuals. In the South African context, unemployment is rife, the economy is unstable, and individual circumstances are complex, to say the least. It is therefore crucial that a more nuanced understanding of employability be considered in the training of tertiary education students to ensure that they truly are being prepared for securing long-term employment.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed, and conclusions arrived at, are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF.

ORCID iD

Janine S Senekal

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