Talent development and employability of actors in South Africa: a case of KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng.

Abstract

The study aimed at creating a talent development framework for the employability of independent contractors who are actors in South Africa’s film and television industry. Employability was defined as consisting of an individual’s abilities to find employment based on their competencies, social capital, human capital, their talent as well as the context in which their competencies are applied. The theoretical underpinnings of the study were based on Cagne’s expanded model of talent development (Cagne, 2013) which provided the conceptual scope of the study. The South African talent development environment has been affected by the country’s past historical marginalisation and imbalances and to date, it still remains a challenge. Independent contractors exist in multiple organisational settings with the nature of the work being project-based and hence often are side-lined on development opportunities that are required to enable their employability. The film and television industry includes the internet, data consumption, television, cinema, video games, e-sports, music, publishing, out of home marketing and radio. The study followed the mixed methods research design using the rationale of triangulation and using different sampling approaches. A total of 325 actors affiliated with the South African Guild of Actors formed the population of the study. The qualitative approach collected data by means of a purposive sampling approach, using expert knowledge from 22 industry stakeholders. Semi-structured interviews were used as a data collection method and were analysed using content analysis. The quantitative approach collected data from 94 independent contractors using a random non-probability sampling approach. Self-administered questionnaires were used as a data collection method and further analysed by means inferential statistics such as anova, independent samples test and scheffe’s multiple comparisons tests. The study found social capital bearing more influence on actors employability with the networking skills identified as still lacking for South African actors. Further the study found positive influence played by talent development, self-perceived employability and human capital on employability of actors. The study recommends the adoption and further expansion of the talent development model, the formalisation of the mentorship programme and the inclusion of social media and brand awareness training and development offerings in the industry.