SA's graduate job market is getting tougher - here's what students can do

By Leon Smalberger, Chief Executive Officer at the Academic Institute of Excellence (AIE)

South Africa's graduate unemployment rate rose to 12.4% in the second quarter of 2026, while the latest research by the South African Graduate Employers Association (SAGEA) reveals that employers are receiving an average of 138 applications per graduate vacancy - the highest figure recorded in the survey's 20-year history.

Although graduates remain significantly less likely to be unemployed than those with lower levels of education, the figures highlight just how competitive the job market has become. So, the question now facing students preparing to enter the workforce is how to stand out among dozens of other candidates with similar qualifications.

A qualification shows employers that a student has foundational knowledge and skills, but it doesn’t reveal how effective they will be in the first weeks on the job or how much additional training they will need. As a result, employers also look at what candidates have achieved outside the classroom and formal curriculum, and whether they can demonstrate practical experience.

Higher education institutions can therefore support employability by placing added emphasis on developing career-ready capabilities alongside academic knowledge, and by encouraging students to use their education as a starting point for wider practical development. Graduates who can demonstrate how they have applied their skills, learned from mistakes, and delivered useful results can then enter interviews with greater evidence of what they can contribute.

Consider two students who complete the same IT qualification with similar results. Both understand software development. One, however, has already helped a small business identify a costly administrative bottleneck, developed an automated solution, tested it with employees, corrected faults, and documented a process that saves several hours of work per month.

Students can build additional capabilities through the many opportunities education institutions like the Academic Institute of Excellence (AIE) offer, from learning from lecturers with real-world experience and engaging with peers who bring different perspectives to participating in projects and events with practical applications.

These five practical approaches can help students gain the experience needed to stand out:

1. Take responsibility for campus projects and activities

Student societies and campus improvement projects offer opportunities to manage real budgets, negotiate with suppliers, coordinate resources, and deliver against deadlines. Students could organise an event, improve an administrative process, or introduce a system that reduces unnecessary work. These responsibilities develop practical understanding of costs, procurement, operational constraints, and accountability for results.

2. Take coursework beyond the assignment

Students can turn academic projects into working solutions for real businesses, potentially laying the foundation for student-run businesses or services. Lecturers can guide them using their own industry experience, as well as insights gained from working with other professionals, helping students understand why sound ideas fail, how real business problems are solved, and whether proposed solutions are commercially viable. This involves engaging prospective clients, understanding their requirements, planning resources, and testing solutions under real working conditions. It also develops practical skills in troubleshooting, documenting work, and improving solutions based on client feedback, all of which employers value highly.

3. Work with students from other disciplines

Cross-disciplinary campus projects give students access to different perspectives while exposing them to how decisions are made across departments. An IT student designing an inventory system might overlook financial reporting requirements that a finance student immediately recognises, while an engineering student could identify equipment limitations that make a proposed automation impractical.

4. Pursue workplace experience before graduating

Internships, vacation work, and job shadowing give students exposure to how businesses function under actual deadlines, financial constraints, and professional obligations. Students should pursue opportunities to contribute to ongoing work, even when their involvement begins with relatively small responsibilities. Site visits can also become valuable practical exercises. An engineering student visiting a manufacturing facility could investigate the causes of recurring production delays, while a finance student shadowing an accounts department might examine how reporting procedures affect cash-flow decisions.

5. Participate in industry challenges and practical research

Industry competitions and research projects often present unfamiliar problems without prescribed solutions. They are especially useful for testing advanced digital tools and AI, allowing students to assess whether automated processes are reliable, investigate errors, and determine whether improvements justify implementation costs.

Research assistance, professional mentoring, industry associations, and specialised short courses can extend this experience by introducing students to technologies and professional practices beyond their formal programmes.

The value of these opportunities ultimately depends on how much responsibility students take and what they achieve through them. Employers will have far more reason to take notice of applicants who can demonstrate a meaningful contribution, regardless of how or where they gained that experience.