“I would help the lecturer with marking”: Entrepreneurial Education Insights on Academic Resilience from the Perspectives of Engineering Students in South Africa

Abstract

Several factors contribute to the alarmingly high youth unemployment rate in South Africa. Barriers such as lack of access to education and practical work experience reflect these statistics and the socio-economic implications of graduate unemployment. This qualitative case study investigated the perceptions of engineering students’ academic resilience in the context of higher education by using a youth development approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted online via Zoom with a sample consisting of 10 participants (aged 22-28 years), namely four Civil engineering students, four Electrical engineering students, and two Industrial engineering students. Six students were South African, whilst the remaining four were international students. Seven participants self-identified as male and three as female. Findings are discussed in terms of the three themes which emerged from the thematic analysis: (a) personal character strengths; (b) access to guidance, resources, and information and (c) a sense of belonging and social connection. This study focused on engineering education and developed a new interdisciplinary understanding of how entrepreneurship education may contribute to engineering students’ academic resilience as a packaged support system that speaks to their psychosocial, educational and economic needs.