Graduates upbeat on SA

Though the current economic trends worry professionals, 77% of them believe that they have a future in South Africa.

This is according to a study by the Professional Provident Society of SA, a financial services company focused on graduate professionals for over 71 years.

The study, in which 3000 of the company's 200000 members were surveyed, found that professionals had growing confidence in their job security.

Seventy-nine percent of the professionals said they had confidence in the future of their profession for the next five years.

According to Gerhard Joubert, head of group marketing and stakeholder relations at PPS, this might "be linked to recent findings that graduate employment has grown dramatically".

A study by the Centre for Development Enterprise, published in April, showed that the number of graduates in the workplace has doubled since 1995, with the number of black graduates tripling.

Of the 1million graduates in 2011, the study found that only 5% were unemployed. In 1995, there were about 460000 graduates, 4% of them unemployed.

"These findings point to demand for skilled professionals. The percentage of unemployed university graduates is minimal when compared to [the products of] non-degree tertiary education (16%), matriculants (29%) and those with less than 12 years of schooling (42%)," said Joubert.

The study found that professionals were concerned about the economy. The survey showed a 3% drop in their confidence in the local share market over the next 12 months.

Confidence in the economic outlook over the next 12 months fell by 2% to 55%.

David Crosoer, research and investments executive at PPS, said the economy continued to perform poorly.

"Challenges facing the mining industry, which is under pressure from weak export markets and spiralling costs, and the local consumer who, for the most part, is poorly educated and heavily indebted, are persistent," said Crosoer.

"Though graduates show concern about the economy they remain optimistic about their future in this country, with a confidence level of 77% about remaining in this country for the foreseeable future, unchanged from the previous quarter.

"It is clear that steps are being taken to improve education," Joubert said.

The study also found that professionals' confidence in the standard of education in the next five years rose by 3% from the last quarter to 46%.

But confidence in maths and science education remained low, with 94% being concerned about the standards.