Widening access, closing minds? The paradox of career aspiration and graduate employability in South Africa

Abstract In the global context of higher education massification and the shifting demands of the labour market, understanding the drivers of student career aspirations is critical. This study interrogates the “graduateness paradox” in South Africa—where expanded access has not yet yielded equitable employment outcomes—by moving beyond simplistic “skills gap” narratives. Employing Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of habitus, capital, and field, we analyse the real-time formation of professional ambition among current students. Drawing on a cross-sectional survey of N = 1,149 students across four diverse South African universities, we utilised hierarchical multiple regression to test the influence of employability skills, institutional support (employability stimulating factors), confidence, and work experience on career aspirations. The findings reveal that while perceived skills and beneficial work experience are significant predictors, students’ “confidence in educational competencies”—conceptualised as a proxy for a confident habitus—emerged as the most powerful determinant of aspiration (β = 0.22, p < .001). Crucially, the influence of institutional support was markedly attenuated and became non-significant when controlling for internalised habitus and capital. This suggests that conventional support interventions may remain “inert” if they fail to foster a sense of legitimacy and belonging among non-traditional students. This study makes a novel contribution by quantitatively demonstrating the primacy of habitus over institutional resources. We argue that neglecting the symbolic violence inherent in devaluing non-traditional capital renders skills-based policies insufficient and can even reinforce the very inequalities they seek to dismantle. This study carries implications for global employability theory and policy in massified systems.