LESSON 8: GRADUATENESS

Learning outcomes
After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

• Discuss Unisa’s expectations of graduates.

• Discuss the CEMS framework of graduateness skills and attributes.
• Demonstrate the CEMS generic transferable meta-skills and personal attributes.
• Explain critical reading skills.
• Give an overview of a typical graduate.

Learning material
There is no additional learning material for Lesson 8. Study the contents of this lesson only to
reach the learning outcomes.

8.1 UNISA’S EXPECTATIONS OF GRADUATES

Unisa generally expects its graduates to have distinctive graduate qualities that characterise their
graduateness. These qualities are included in the following statement on the graduateness of a Unisa
student (Unisa Curriculum Policy 2010, p.13 -14).

Unisa graduates

(i) are independent, resilient, responsible and caring citizens who can fulfil and serve in multiple
roles in their immediate and future local, national and global communities
(ii) have a critical understanding of their location on the African continent with its histories,
challenges and potential concerning globally diverse contexts
(iii) can critically analyse and evaluate the credibility and usefulness of information and data from
multiple sources in a globalised world with its ever-increasing information and data flows and
competing worldviews
(iv) know how to apply their discipline-specific knowledge competently, ethically and creatively to
solve real-life problems
(v) are critically aware of their own learning and developmental needs and future potential

As a student in the Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, you are part of the College of
Economic and Management Sciences (CEMS). CEMS aims to create graduates who are responsible,
accountable, relevant and ethical (RARE) citizens in every community where they live and work. In support
of Unisa’s statement on its students’ graduateness, CEMS focuses on imparting to its students (in addition
to the discipline-specific knowledge of a course or module) a specific set of generic transferable meta-

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skills and personal attributes (generally referred to as graduateness skills and attributes) that transcend
disciplinary-specific outcomes. These skills and attributes help students to become competent and
professional graduates who have the potential to make sustained positive contributions to society, their
professions and their workplaces.

Global Citizen

Scholarship Lifelong Learning

GRADUATENESS

SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES

Presenting & Applying
Interactive Information
Problem-solving
& Decision-making STUDENT Goal-directed
CENTRED
Continuous Learning Ethical &
Orientation Responsible
Analytical Thinking
Enterprising
Skills

EMPLOYABILITY

RARE
Ethical
Accountable

Responsive
Responsible

CURRICULUM, TEACHING, LEARNING & ASSESSMENT DESIGN

Note: errata in the figure RARE = Responsible, Accountable, Relevant, Ethical

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8.2 THE CEMS FRAMEWORK OF GRADUATENESS SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES

The CEMS framework of graduateness skills and attributes addresses three holistic overarching attributes
that are regarded as important transdisciplinary enabling outcomes of university education: (1)
scholarship (students’ attitude or stance towards knowledge, the way they think and work, and the tools
they use to work effectively), (2) global citizenship (students’ attitude or stance towards the world and
living in the world), and (3) lifelong learning (students’ attitude or stance towards themselves and living
in the world).

• As scholars, graduates should be leaders in the production of new knowledge and understanding
through inquiry, critique and synthesis. They should be able to apply their knowledge to solve
consequential and complex problems and communicate their knowledge confidently and
effectively.

• As global citizens, graduates must aspire to contribute to society in a full, meaningful, ethical and
responsible way through their roles as members of local, national and global communities.

• As lifelong learners, graduates must be committed to and capable of continuous learning to

further their understanding of the world and their place in it.

The CEMS generic transferable meta-skills and personal attributes form an integral part of the generic
critical cross-field outcomes listed by the South African government as learning outcomes that are
relevant throughout life for all South African citizens. As an integral part of the CEMS framework of
graduateness skills and attributes, these generic learning outcomes enable graduates to continue to be
proactive, enterprising learners who are flexible and able to adapt to change throughout their careers and
professional lives.

Apart from helping you to develop the required applied competencies outlined in the purpose statement
of the module, the learning and assessment activities have been designed to enable you to develop the
graduateness skills and attributes expected from a CEMS graduate. Developing and applying the
graduateness skills and attributes by completing the various learning and assessment activities will help
you to master the disciplinary-specific learning outcomes and applied competencies specified for this
module.

While studying, doing your assignments or implementing theory in the work situation, you should try to
be constantly aware of your effectiveness in displaying and using the applied competencies listed above
in the purpose statement and the graduateness skills and attributes summarised in the table below. This
will give you a broader understanding of your own skills and acquired effectiveness as a Unisa graduate.

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8.3 CEMS GENERIC TRANSFERABLE META-SKILLS AND PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

CEMS generic transferable meta-skills and personal attributes include:

• Interactive skills: These skills relate to (1) the effective and efficient use of the English language
and technology when communicating with others and (2) the ability to function effectively and
efficiently as a person when communicating and interacting with people from diverse cultures,
backgrounds and authority levels.
• Problem-solving and decision-making skills: These skills relate to being creative and proactive in
the process of finding a solution to a recognised but often ill-defined problem or problematic and
complex situation.
• Continuous learning orientation: This involves being cognitively open to lifelong learning and
willing to proactively engage in acquiring new knowledge, skills and abilities throughout one’s life
and career in reaction to and anticipation of changing technology and performance criteria.
• Enterprising skills: These skills involve being adventurous, applying critical thinking and initiative,
and being proactive when engaging in economic activities or undertakings either to create or
operate an enterprise of one’s own or to be a substantial contributor to an enterprise as an
employee. Being enterprising also means that one can recognise and is adept at dealing with
organisational or team politics.
• Presenting and applying information skills: These skills refer to the ability to clearly and
convincingly communicate knowledge, facts, ideas and opinions (oral and written) to offer
solutions to problems (either for one’s benefit or for the benefit of one’s community or
workplace).
• Goal-directed behaviour: This refers to the ability to be proactive and apply initiative to achieve
one’s goals, accomplish tasks or meet deadlines. Setting realistic goals, developing plans and
taking action to achieve one’s goals, accomplish tasks and meet deadlines are core elements of
goal-directed behaviour.
• Ethical and responsible behaviour: This involves accepting full responsibility for and taking the
lead in upholding the code of moral beliefs and values of one’s profession, community and/or
workplace.
• Analytical thinking skills: Analytical thinking implies being able to employ logic, reasoning and
analysis to competently explain information and data, and being able to draw insightful
conclusions from this data analysis.

As students study and work, it will become evident in the day-to-day interactions that they display CEMS
generic transferable meta-skills and personal attributes. Through the use of language, critical reasoning
abilities, self-improvement, consideration of the consequences of the solutions they provide, presenting
these solutions, setting goals, taking the lead and giving accurate explanations for information amongst
others. Examples of these kinds of skills are illustrated in table 1 (Coetzee 2012).

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8.4 CEMS GENERIC TRANSFERABLE META-SKILLS

CEMS generic transferable meta-skills include:

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8.5 CRITICAL READING SKILLS

In academia and other environments, critical reading skills are important. In this module and as you
continue with your studies you will come across several activities which require critical reading skills. What
this means is that you need to exercise your judgement about what you are reading - not take everything
at face value.

This does not mean being argumentative without substantiating evidence to the contrary. You should
always examine what you are reading critically and look for limitations, omissions, inconsistencies,
oversights and arguments against what you are reading. In academic circles, whilst you are a student, you
will be expected to understand different viewpoints and make your own judgements based on what you
have read.

As a critical reader you should reflect on:

• What the text says: after critically reading a piece you should be able to take notes, paraphrasing
- in your own words - the key points.
• What the text describes: you should be confident that you have understood the text sufficiently
to be able to use your own examples and compare and contrast with other writing on the subject
in hand.
• Interpretation of the text: this means that you should be able to fully analyse the text and state
a meaning for the text as a whole.

Critical reading means being able to reflect on what a text says, what it describes and what it means by
scrutinising the style and structure of the writing, the language used as well as the content. Read more
at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/critical-reading.html. We encourage students to acquire this
skill while working on this module and show evidence of the skill as they engage with the different
activities in the module. The first of which you will find at the end of this lesson.

8.6 A TYPICAL GRADUATE

The diagram here will give you an excellent idea of the type of graduate we would like you to be when
graduating. In a global knowledge-based economy and society, employers’ perceptions about the quality
of graduates from higher education institutions such as Unisa, their employability and general work
readiness increasingly influence graduates’ transition into employment. Your employability as a graduate
is an important aspect of your overall graduateness. As an aspect of your graduateness, employability
relates to your subjective career – which involves a sense of self-directedness or personal agency in
retaining or securing a job or form of employment based on a set of personal career-related attributes
and dispositions generally promoted by employers and researchers as an alternative to job security in an
uncertain employment context. In this module, you will learn more about these employability attributes.
As shown in the figure, by developing your graduateness skills and attributes, you will have the necessary

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tools to be a valuable employee or candidate in the 21st-century world of work. Research has shown that
graduates’ graduateness significantly predicts their employability.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 8.1: YOUR SKILLS AND FUTURE JOBS

The Youtube video provides an interesting overview of what the future of jobs will be like. If
you cannot access the video you will not lose out on any learning. Students will not be assessed on the
video's content. https://youtu.be/eH1fFdjzJAw

8.7 CONCLUSION

This concludes the lessons for IOP1601, Personality in the work and self-employment context. We trust
you found the learning experience meaningful and leave you with the video above to reflect on how these
predictions of the future world of work would impact your goals as you continue with your studies.