Public Service Internship Programme towards Graduates’ Employability: A Case of Limpopo Province, South Africa

The South African government introduced the Public Service Internship Programme as a measure to assist graduates in increasing their employability in the public sector by providing them with practical and accelerated work experience programmes that expose interns to specific occupations. Whilst the gap between theory and practice has often been considered from an employer and academic standpoint, less is known about the graduate perspective. This study sought to investigate the contribution of the Public Service Internship Programme towards graduate employability, with a distinct focus on Limpopo Province in South Africa. A mixed-method approach was adopted as the research approach. The main aims for adopting this method were to fully comprehend and analyse the detailed findings of the study as provided by the respondents. The data collection was made using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires and the data analysis was done using content analysis. The sample size consists of 30 respondents drawn from the three respective hosting institutions which are the Limpopo Office of the Premier, Limpopo Department of Public Works and Polokwane Municipality. The findings of the study show that the programme does expose the graduates to practical work in the public service to assist them in becoming employable. The study concludes that the programme does afford the interns the skills to enter the labour market.