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This study examined the extent to which experiential learning and career guidance activities, as strategies for equipping students with transferable skills, are used by Higher Education (HE) in two African countries, Nigeria and South Africa to prepare students for the volatile labour market. The contributions of the two strategies to students' preparedness for work, after controlling for the possible effects of gender and type of university, were also determined. Perceptions of students (n=865) from six universities in the two countries, on their level of exposure to the two strategies, were analysed. Hierarchical regression was used to control for the influence of gender and type of university, while findings from the two countries were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests. Students from both countries agreed that the two strategies jointly and individually have significant positive influences on their preparedness for work. However, the students alleged that their universities are not exposing them adequately to these strategies. Students from Nigeria believed they are exposed adequately only to experiential learning, while those from South Africa demonstrated inadequate exposure to both strategies. The effects of gender and type of university on students' responses were significant only among South African students. This study has highlighted the extent to which sampled universities adopt the two strategies in preparing their students for work and has offered suggestions on how to address the identified inadequacies in students' exposure to the strategies. Also, results of the differences in students' perceptions have established the role of dominant contextual differences in employability development, which should be acknowledged when making quantitative comparisons in Higher Education between countries.

Purpose: This study responds to identified challenges of poor work-readiness of many graduates and the inadequate relation between education and work. Through students' perspectives, the study examines the extent to which selected South African universities are supporting their students in developing employability skills and the influence of such employability support on students' enhanced employability. Design/methodology/approach: Through purposive sampling, information was obtained from a sample of 402 final year students at two universities in South Africa. After an exploratory factor analysis, 34 of the 35 items on the questionnaire successfully loaded for further analysis under seven components. Findings: South African universities that were analysed are adequately engaging their students with two of the six employability development opportunities (EDOs), while students' engagement with the other four is only to a fair extent. EDOs are found to jointly influence students' employability. The curriculum has the highest influence, followed by personal development planning, career development learning and work experience. Real-world activities and extracurricular activities were not found to influence students' self-perceived employability. Originality/value: Beyond identifying skills that graduates are expected to possess, which dominate the discussion and debate on graduate employability, this study elucidates the role of universities in providing support structures -- EDOs -- that enable students to establish an appropriate connection between theory and practice. It provides insight into the employability potential of South African universities and increases the universities' awareness of what they can do to ensure the production of work-ready graduates.

Stratification, in the form of silent exclusion that is experienced by some groups of students because of the perceived low reputation of the university attended, and which the students have no control over, has been observed as a social menace that works against the concept of equity in education. To address this problem, a need exists for universities with lower reputations to go the extra mile to develop the employability skills of their students, which, in turn, will enhance their self-perception of employability. The major objective of this study was to investigate the influence of experiential learning activities on the relationship between university reputation and self-perceived employability among undergraduates in South African universities. Data were collected by means of an adapted questionnaire from 402 respondents drawn from two universities in the same province in South Africa. To achieve our objective, four hypotheses were formulated and tested through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using AMOS 25. The findings show that both direct and indirect effects of university reputation on undergraduates' perceived employability through experiential learning activities are positively significant. To minimise the negative effects that universities with low reputations are likely to have on undergraduates' acquisition of experiential learning, on their self-perceived employability, and subsequently on their employment prospects, the government, the Department of Higher Education and universities (particularly, the low-rated ones in South Africa) need to put in place some timely interventions, some of which are suggested in the study.

Cyberbullying is often operationalized as an aggression conducted by people on various electronic devices. However, these technologies differ in their characteristics and the distinctive aspects of their effects are not clearly known. The present study examined the nature and influence of cyberbullying committed using mobile phones in high schools in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. We surveyed 3621 students and the findings suggest that the use of mobile phones could have greater cyber-bullying effect than the use of other electronic devices. School culture had the greatest influence on mobile bullying, followed by anonymity. Nevertheless, the influence of anonymity does not only depend on non-identification of the bully but on other factors like safety risk. We also found that it is important to examine gender influence at various stages of the bullying activities. Gender appears to influence mobile bullying at its initiation stage than at the promotion and maintenance stages. The implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]