IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaae23/365920.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Assessing the contribution of the Agricultural Economics profession in addressing graduate unemployment

Author

Listed:
  • Mhaka, S.
  • Louw, M.H.
  • van der Merwe, M.

Abstract

Tertiary education is servicing a rapidly changing labour market which is driven by the digital revolution whilst subjected to unprecedented events. The Covid-19 pandemic led to the increased deployment of the fourth industrial revolution innovations in workplaces which further threatens the employability of graduates. The extent to which agri-food professions like agricultural economics were affected before the pandemic by fourth industrial revolution concepts as big data and automation is not yet ascertained. More so, their familiarity with common examples of the fourth industrial revolution and their propensity to adopt new technologies begotten by the fourth industrial revolution innovations. This study, therefore, provided some insight into the impacts of big data and automation by capturing the perceptions of agricultural economics graduates of the University of Pretoria before the Covid-19 pandemic. The distribution of the familiarity scores were more skewed to the less familiar suggesting that the graduates are not adept at using new digital technologies. The results indicated that their propensity to adopt new digital technologies could not be influenced by academic performance or the experience the graduate has. However, the graduates believe that big data application and automation will be prevalent in their current jobs over the 10 years. They perceived employment creation, job losses, shifts in skillset demanded on the labour market as a result of automation and big data application. Thereby posing a need for universities as suppliers of the labour market to prepare their graduates for the changes that are brought by the fourth industrial revolution so as to increase their resilience in food security in the event of crises.

Suggested Citation

  • Mhaka, S. & Louw, M.H. & van der Merwe, M., 2023. "Assessing the contribution of the Agricultural Economics profession in addressing graduate unemployment," 2023 Seventh AAAE/60th AEASA Conference, September 18-21, 2023, Durban, South Africa 365920, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaae23:365920
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.365920
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/365920/files/216.%20Graduates%20in%20South%20Africa.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.365920?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Coopmans, Isabeau & Bijttebier, Jo & Marchand, Fleur & Mathijs, Erik & Messely, Lies & Rogge, Elke & Sanders, Arthur & Wauters, Erwin, 2021. "COVID-19 impacts on Flemish food supply chains and lessons for agri-food system resilience," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    2. David Mhlanga, 2022. "The Role of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: What Lessons Are We Learning on 4IR and the Sustainable Development Goals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-22, February.
    3. W. Craig Riddell & Xueda Song, 2017. "The Role of Education in Technology Use and Adoption: Evidence from the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 70(5), pages 1219-1253, October.
    4. Weinberg, Bruce A., 2004. "Experience and Technology Adoption," IZA Discussion Papers 1051, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Jenny Meyer, 2011. "Workforce age and technology adoption in small and medium-sized service firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 305-324, October.
    6. Dula Etana & Degefa Tolossa, 2017. "Unemployment and Food Insecurity in Urban Ethiopia," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 29(1), pages 56-68, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fernández-Macías, Enrique & Klenert, David & Antón, José-Ignacio, 2021. "Not so disruptive yet? Characteristics, distribution and determinants of robots in Europe," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 76-89.
    2. Feld, Lars P. & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Schnabel, Isabel & Truger, Achim & Wieland, Volker, 2019. "Den Strukturwandel meistern. Jahresgutachten 2019/20 [Dealing with Structural Change. Annual Report 2019/20]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 201920.
    3. Backman, Mikaela & Karlsson, Charlie, 2013. "Exploration of Wisdom Ages: Firm survival," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 339, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    4. Durant, Jennie L. & Asprooth, Lauren & Galt, Ryan E. & Schmulevich, Sasha Pesci & Manser, Gwyneth M. & Pinzón, Natalia, 2023. "Farm resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of California direct market farmers," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    5. Bhimani, Alnoor & Hausken, Kjell & Arif, Sameen, 2022. "Do national development factors affect cryptocurrency adoption?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    6. Barth, Erling & Davis, James C. & Freeman, Richard B. & McElheran, Kristina, 2023. "Twisting the demand curve: Digitalization and the older workforce," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 443-467.
    7. Lex Borghans & Bas Weel, 2006. "The Division of Labour, Worker Organisation, and Technological Change," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(509), pages 45-72, February.
    8. Alex Coad, 2018. "Firm age: a survey," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 13-43, January.
    9. Kevin Escoz Barragan & Felix Simon Rudolf Becker, 2025. "Keeping pace with the digital transformation — exploring the digital orientation of SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 1361-1385, March.
    10. Barrett, Garry F. & Riddell, W. Craig, 2019. "Ageing and Skills: The Case of Literacy Skills," IZA Discussion Papers 12073, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Ines P. Murillo, 2006. "Returns to Education and Human Capital Depreciation in Spain," ERSA conference papers ersa06p60, European Regional Science Association.
    12. Rebecca Riley & Simon Kirby, 2006. "The Returns to General versus Job-Specific Skills: the Role of Information and Communication Technology," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 274, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    13. Leyla Juma Pongwe & Josephine Churk, 2024. "Social Media Marketing Platforms and Sales Revenue in Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 14(1), pages 31-38, January.
    14. Cirera,Xavier & Comin,Diego Adolfo & Vargas Da Cruz,Marcio Jose & Lee,Kyungmin & Soares Martins Neto,Antonio, 2021. "Firm-Level Technology Adoption in Vietnam," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9567, The World Bank.
    15. Santana, Monica & Cobo, Manuel J., 2020. "What is the future of work? A science mapping analysis," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 846-862.
    16. Pavlos Kilintzis & Giorgos Avlogiaris & Elpida Samara & Yiannis Bakouros, 2023. "Technology Entrepreneurship: a Model for the European Case," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(2), pages 879-904, June.
    17. Lex Borghans & Bas ter Weel, 2008. "Understanding the Technology of Computer Technology Diffusion: Explaining Computer Adoption Patterns and Implications for the Wage Structure," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 17(3-4), pages 37-70, September.
    18. Margherita Bernabei & Silvia Colabianchi & Francesco Costantino, 2022. "Actions and Strategies for Coronavirus to Ensure Supply Chain Resilience: A Systemic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-19, October.
    19. Olayemi M. Olabiyi, 2020. "Electoral participation and household food insecurity in sub‐Saharan Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(3), pages 392-403, September.
    20. Federico Biagi & ?Danilo Cavapozzi & ?Raffaele Miniaci, 2007. "Technology, Skills and Retirement," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0042, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaae23:365920. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaaeaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.