Bridging the gap: Employers’ perceptions of hospitality graduates’ employability skills in Gauteng, South Africa

The South African hospitality sector faces a disconnect between the graduate outputs from higher education institutions and the expectations of industry employers. This study aims to explore employers’ perspectives on the employability skills of hospitality graduates in Gauteng Province, South Africa, offering context-specific insight into employer expectations within the hospitality sector. Grounded in a positivist paradigm, the research adopted a deductive, quantitative approach, using structured questionnaires to collect data from purposively selected hotel and restaurant managers and supervisors across Gauteng Province. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the Mann-Whitney U test. The findings reveal adequate technical training among graduates, but significant deficiencies in soft skills, including communication, adaptability, professionalism, initiative, and customer-service orientation. Recommendations include embedding experiential learning, involving employers in curriculum development, and adopting assessment strategies to enhance holistic employability within higher education institutions. This study provides employer-driven, context-specific evidence from Gauteng that may inform curriculum review, work-integrated learning, and future research on hospitality graduate employability.