Assessing Employability Skills of Technical-Vocational Students in Malaysia

Abstract

Technical-Vocational Education and Training (TVE) system plays important role in providing highly skilled workforce to fulfill the needs of industries. An empirical research of TVE system is necessary to identify effective TVE system to successfully equip students with technical skills that would enable them to fulfill the current work demands and professional expectations. The objective of this paper is to present the findings of TVE system implementation in one of the technical training institution in Malaysia. Research sample has been selected using a simple random method from the third year students. A total of 162 students participated in this research. The result shows that mean score for overall employability skills was quite high. Two aspects of the employability skills, namely, thinking skills and resource management competence and system & technology competence were slightly lower than the mean score. Respondents have slightly higher than the mean scores on basic informational competence interpersonal competence. The mean score of personal quality is the highest among all the aspects of variables of employability skills.

Employability Skill Acquisition among Malaysian Community College Students

“…However, the mean was lower than the findings of Kazilan et al (2009) and of Bakar and Hanafi (2007), which found that the mean employability skill scores of Malaysian vocational trainees was 3.86 and 3.8, respectively. The results of this study show no significant difference in employability skills as a function of gender.…”

“…The Cronbach's alpha reliability estimate of the instrument to measure employability skills was 0.85. This was lower than the reliability estimate of 0.95 obtained by Kazilan et al (2009) and 0.96 by Bakar and Hanafi (2007).…”

“…With this mean, we would consider the employability skills of these community college students to be moderately high. The mean score was slightly lower than the scores obtained by Kazilan et al (2009) whose study indicated that the mean score of technical trainees who attended technical training institutes was 3.86, with an S. D. of 0.36 and by Bakar and Hanafi (2007) where their findings showed that mean scores was 3.80 with an S. D. of 0.55.…”

“…Specifically, basic skills and information skills differed significantly as a function of gender, with female students exhibiting greater levels of these skills compared to male students. Bakar and Hanafi (2007) also found that sepcific employability skills, basic skills and personal quality differed significantly between male and female respondents.…”

Problem-Solving Strategies Among Culinary Arts Students in Community Colleges

“…This may be because PISA is an assessment of students' ability to solve problems focused on real-life applications, which tends to be more difficult for students to master (Clarke, 2016). The results support the work of other studies for example, the one linking the lack of problem-solving skills to TVET graduates (Bakar & Hanafi, 2007;Department of Community College Education, 2011;Mimi Mohaffyza Mohamad, Yee Mei Heong, Nurfirdawati Muhammad Hanafi, & Tee Tze Kiong, 2014;Rahman, Mokhtar, Hamzah, & Yasin, 2011;Sander, 2012;Zaliza Hanapi, Mohd Safarin Nordin, & Khamis, 2015). In accordance with the present findings, previous studies, as noted above, have also demonstrated that these are valid concerns because employees with strong communicative skills, ability to perform tasks and who were highly critical and able to solve problems were more sought after and not just those who possessed technical skills (Deutsch et al, 2009;Lin & Cherng, 2006;Müller et al, 2009;Young & Chapman, 2010).…”