© Kamla-Raj 2012 J Soc Sci, 33(3): 305-313 (2012) Distance Learning Students’ Graduateness as Predictors of Their Job Satisfaction and Optimism about Future Career Prospects Melinde Coetzee Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, PO Box 392, University of South Africa 0003 Telephone: +27 12 429 8204. E-mail: coetzm1@unisa.ac.za KEYWORDS Graduateness. Enterprising Skills. Continuous Learning Orientation. Presenting and Applying Information Skills ABSTRACT This study explored whether individuals’ graduateness skills and attributes (measured by the Graduateness Scale) significantly predict their job satisfaction and optimism about their future career prospects, and whether race and gender groups differ significantly regarding these variables. A random sample of 272 adults employed in the South African service industry and registered as distance learning students in the economic and management sciences field at a South African open distance learning higher education institution participated in the study. A quantitative survey design was used. Multiple regression analyses indicated enterprising skills as a significant predictor of the participants’ job satisfaction. Continuous learning orientation and presenting and applying information skills significantly predicted the participants’ optimism regarding their future career prospects. The race and gender groups differed significantly regarding their graduateness skills and attributes, with Indians scoring higher than the other race groups, and females scoring higher than their male counterparts. The new knowledge obtained may be used to inform organisational training and development and higher educational curriculum design practices concerned with optimising the graduateness of employees in their role as students and lifelong learners in a knowledge-driven global business economy. INTRODUCTION Employers globally are paying increasing attention to the graduateness of their prospec- tive and current employees as they recognise the human capital inherent in their professional- ly qualified and high-skilled knowledge workers as important intangible assets to gain a compet- itive advantage, and secure survival and suc- cess in a turbulent business environment (Noe et al. 2010; Reissner and Watson 2010). The skills and attributes that constitute the graduateness of a university graduate are considered to be an important outcome of university-level learning experiences (Barrie 2004). Students’ graduate- ness implies that apart from their degree-specif- ic knowledge and technical skills, they are able to demonstrate a set of generic transferable meta- skills and personal attributes which are general- ly regarded as indicators of their employability and work readiness (Clanchy and Ballard 1995; Coetzee 2011; Rigby et al. 2009; Wendlandt and Rochlen 2011). Distance learning students tend to be work- ing adults who have the opportunity to apply and further develop their graduateness skills and attributes in the workplace. Higher education academics increasingly realise the importance of students’ graduateness and imparting these skills and attributes to their students with a view of them becoming competent and professional graduates who have the potential to make sus- tained positive contributions to society, to their professions, and in their workplaces (Coetzee 2011). Paying attention to the graduateness of students prepares them for successful transi- tion to work and managing their continued em- ployability in the contemporary workplace (Co- etzee 2011; Wendlandt and Rochlen 2011). Employers generally consider the generic, transferable skills and attributes that signify an employee’s graduateness as vitally important to their businesses and therefore expect graduates to have these when they enter the workplace (Griesel and Parker 2009; Raftapoulous et al 2009). In the context of a knowledge-driven business economy, the skills and attributes that consti- tute employees’ graduateness are regarded by companies as being vital in creating the type of workplace culture in which innovation, adapt- ability and flexibility thrives (Thompson et al. 2008; Van Dam 2004). Based on an extensive review of the research literature, South African employer surveys and higher education academics’ perceptions on stu- dent graduateness, Coetzee (2011) identified eight core skills and attributes that constitute the graduateness of students’ pursuing a career