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The North West University’s (NWU’s) Career Centre recently conducted a Graduate Destination Survey (GDS) to gain more insight and to determine the employment trends of NWU graduates, six months after graduation.

The Career Centre have been running the GDS since 2015. The survey responds directly to the NWU’s strategic plan, which is to increase the employability of the university’s graduates.

“The response rate for the past three years has been adequate,” says Thoriso Maseng, director of the NWU Career Centre. "In 2017 we had more than 1 200 graduates participating in the survey, but we would like to encourage more graduates to engage, so we can gather more information.”

According to Thoriso, some of the findings since 2015 show that a large number of NWU graduates have found employment within the first six months of leaving the institution. Those who are not employed are either furthering their studies or still actively job hunting.

He adds that the survey also indicated that most of the NWU’s graduates had found employment after applying for one to five jobs. A large number of former students indicated that they found these job posts on the internet.

In a lucky draw conducted by the Career Centre, five survey participants won 1 gig mobile data each.

The winners are Chantè-Lee Britz, Louis Oosthuizen, Nelisiwe Nkabinde, Themba Mkwanazi and Fiona Els.