Employability Skills: Malaysian Employers Perspectives

Bakar, Ab. Rahim; Mohamed, Shamsiah; Hanafi, İvan

doi:10.18848/1833-1882/cgp/v02i01/51700

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…These findings concur with other studies. Researchers who examined the employers' perspective by analysing job advertisements [9,10] found that communication skill is ranked as the most important skill and interpersonal skills ranked second. For the lecturers in the present study, interpersonal skills, presentation skills, and understanding instruction and direction ranked high on their priority list.…”

Section: E Discussion Of Overall Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, Ooi and Ting attributed the overly high self-ratings of students to their lack of working experience, or exposure to the working world [24]. For universities to produce graduates who are closer to meeting the expectations of employers, Bakar, Mohamed, and Hanafi [9] and Nadarajah [20] suggest frequent and strategic collaborations between the industries and the academic institutions. To narrow the gap in terms of graduates' skills and the needs of the job market, Raslie and Ting call for employers communicate their workplace expectations and needs explicitly as a way to reach out to Gen Y and Gen Z workers [24].…”

Section: E Discussion Of Overall Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The industry perspective on crucial skills that are expected of employees can be seen from job advertisements. Bakar, Mohamed, and Hanafi analysed job advertisements and concluded that 61.9% of employers considered effective communication skill as a highly employable trait for those applying for executive and managerial positions, and 47.62% required them to have interpersonal and personality skills [9]. Bakar et al also found that about 43% of employers needed their executive employees to have strong leadership qualities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mourshed, Patel, and Suder reported of the poor interaction between education/training institutions and industry sector [16]. Thus far, studies in Malaysia [9,10,17,18,19,20] have investigated employability skills from one perspective, either students, lecturers, or employers, but have not compared all three perspectives. Little is understood about whether students are developing the necessary skills to be more employable, and whether lecturers are getting it right when preparing their students for the job market.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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University Students’ Communication and Employability Skills: Mismatch Perspectives of Students, Lecturers, and Employers in Sarawak, Malaysia

Ong

Ting²,

Raslie³

et al. 2022

NOTION J. Linguist. Lit. Cult.

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In Malaysia, graduate unemployability is a problem that is often highlighted. Studies have shown that graduates lack soft skills, such as problem solving, English language proficiency, and communication skills, which contribute to the issue of unemployability. However, these studies have not investigated employability skills from all three perspectives of students, lecturers, and employers to understand whether students are developing the necessary skills to be more employable, and whether lecturers are getting it right when preparing their students for the job market. Therefore, this study fills in the gap by comparing university students’ communication and employability skills from the perspectives of students, lecturers, and employers. The study aimed to determine students’ ratings of communicative ability and employability skills, and how these ratings match those of the lecturers and employers, and to compare the ranking of the importance of these skills by lecturers and employers. The questionnaire data were collected from 123 students, 26 lectures, and 26 employers in Sarawak, Malaysia. The findings showed that the students rated themselves more highly on reading and writing, and employability skills than on listening and speaking skills. The lecturers and employers ranked employability skills as more important than communication skills. They were consistent in the ranking of interpersonal skills and presentation skills as the top communication skills. The top employability skills were time management skills, leadership qualities, managing personnel, managing resources, teamwork spirit, planning, organising, controlling and evaluation skills, and problem-solving aptitude. However, lecturers prioritised teamwork spirit while employers prioritised problem-solving aptitude. However, none of the reading and writing skills were among the top 10 skills expected of graduates entering the workplace. In concluding the study, the overall findings indicated that the students and lecturers overrated the students’ readiness for the workplace.

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Section: E Discussion Of Overall Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: E Discussion Of Overall Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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University Students’ Communication and Employability Skills: Mismatch Perspectives of Students, Lecturers, and Employers in Sarawak, Malaysia

Ong

Ting²,

Raslie³

et al. 2022

NOTION J. Linguist. Lit. Cult.

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show abstract

“…Values and attitudes, such as being hardworking and displaying a willingness to shoulder extra work (Pang et al, 2019), are highly valued by employers, in addition to professionalism. Bakar et al, (2007) point out that Malaysian employers expect their employees to have good work habits and attitudes, among which were good attendance, punctuality, cooperation, interest, enthusiasm, honesty and loyalty. In a more recent Malaysian study (Cheong et al, 2016), values and personality were rated among the top four attributes needed among graduates.…”

Section: Radar Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Skills Acquisition and Employability Among Arts and Social Sciences Interns in a Malaysian Public University

Monogaran

Subramaniam

2023

IJIE

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Many Malaysian employers feel that university curricula inadequately prepare graduates for the realities of the job market. The present study attempts to rank skills acquisition among interns at a Malaysian public university and identify the gaps through skills gap and radar analyses. Respondents comprised students from an Arts and Social Sciences faculty in a Malaysian public university who had undergone internship as well as the employers who conducted trainings for them. Using a simple random sampling method, 164 students and 43 employers provided responses. The largest gap between employers’ expectations and interns’ performance is seen for ‘values, attitudes and professionalism’. Employers tend to emphasise ‘values, attitudes and professionalism’ as an essential skill for employability. Positive qualities, such as having good work habits and attitudes, are valuable assets that need to be inculcated. Another skill that requires improvement is ‘communication, leadership and team skills’, as poor communication skills can become a serious obstacle for employability. This study provides insights from a dual perspective analysis through the identification of gaps between actual and expected intern performance. This information will be a valuable guideline in redesigning university modules to meet the demands of potential employers.

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A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills

Karim

Abdullah

Rahman

et al. 2012

Asia Pacific Educ. Rev.

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The main function of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) is to produce skilled and knowledgeable workforce who are able to not only function with minimal guidance but also to contribute effectively to the hiring organizations. Many studies have indicated that most HEIs have somewhat similar course content and thrived at producing students with good academic achievement. But what differentiated them from one another is their ability to develop knowledge workers with the right employability skills or 'soft skills' such as communication, problemsolving, interpersonal and other skills deemed important as the foundations by which they require to function at work regardless of the nature of employment. This paper reports findings of a large-scale study looking into the soft skills attainment of Malaysian HEI graduates. A quantitative survey design was employed whereby data were obtained through the administration of an instrument called the Malaysian Soft Skills Scale (My3S). My3S consists of 180 items covering seven elements namely Communications, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Teamwork, Moral and Professional Ethics, Leadership, Life Long Learning and Entrepreneurial aspects. The mean scores for the seven My3S subscales were found to be between 6.3 and 7.8 from the maximum possible score of 10. Specifically, comparisons were made between graduates of public and private institutions with respect to the seven elements. Findings of the study suggest that, in general, students of public HEIs scored higher in all seven skills. With respect to gender, male students scored higher than female students in all elements except for teamwork skills and moral and professional ethics. A comparison between fields of study showed that for both types of HEIs, technical students scored the highest in all skills except for moral and professional ethics. Based on the findings of this study, it is suggested that in addition to offering specific courses to improve soft skills attainment, HEIs need to embed soft skills in their academic curricula.

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Employability Skills: Malaysian Employers Perspectives

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

University Students’ Communication and Employability Skills: Mismatch Perspectives of Students, Lecturers, and Employers in Sarawak, Malaysia

University Students’ Communication and Employability Skills: Mismatch Perspectives of Students, Lecturers, and Employers in Sarawak, Malaysia

Skills Acquisition and Employability Among Arts and Social Sciences Interns in a Malaysian Public University

A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills

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