The Employability Skills Performance of Business Graduates in Malaysia: Do Employers, Graduates and Academicians Speak the Same Language?

Abstract

Employability skills may implicate and reflect the employment opportunity especially among the new graduates. This study aims to compare the performance of employability skills among new business graduates in Malaysia base on stakeholder perceptions; they are the employer, academician and new graduate. Besides, is to identify if there is any significant difference between their opinions. Three sets of questionnaires were established to evaluate employability skills; they are basic, applied, interpersonal and 21st-century skills. The result revealed that stakeholders rated the performance of new graduate high and interpersonal skill is the most performed. The result also revealed that they speak in a different language in which specific skills is the most important than the others. Accordingly, recommendations and limitations highlighted in this study. Contribution/ Originality:This study contributes to the existing literature that provides practical evidence on the role of employers, academicians, and graduates in the employment opportunity. Besides, to offer the stakeholders some clear picture on current employability skills gap that links directly to the performance and sustainability of organization and country as the whole.

Malaysian Fresh Graduates’ Performance in Job Interviews: Politeness Strategies

“…It is also emphasised that interviewers would "regard graduates interaction skills and the way they depict themselves as carrying more weight that information provided in the CV, hence having adequate interactive capability can enhance individuals' to present heightened self-assurance (Valerija, 2010;Selvaratnam, 2018). This confirms that good interaction is a significant feature to portray a confident personality, which is an essential part of impression management (Tanius et al, 2019).…”

“…This triggered exasperation on the part of the interviewer that was revealed from the face-to-face interaction and repetitions. Tanius, et al (2019) suggest that proficient interaction and knowledge are two crucial issues that create assurance and feelings of honesty and this ensures a favourable outcome of an interview (Kerekes, 2006). Consequently, interviewees need to offer extra data that pertains to the question for example by providing many details instead of giving brief answers as can be seen in Excerpt 3.…”

Impression Management Tactics in Job Interviews among Fresh graduates in Malaysia: A Case Study in a Workplace

“…A few investigations were carried out to determine if candidates had the necessary skills to be employed. Tanius et al (2019) carried out one such study on Malaysian business graduates to ascertain their abilities and suitability to be gainfully employed. Rahman et al (2019) investigated the discernments of managers regarding communication abilities among new graduates.…”

Graduate employability skills: Words and phrases used in job interviews

“…Many organisations have also measured employability skills by using job interview documents in their analyses (Azmi et al, 2018). Tanius et al (2019) used a rating scale for their interview documents. This had seven categories: outstanding, competent, excellent, average, below average, poor, not applicable, and unable to determine.…”

“…Many organisations have also measured employability skills by using job interview documents in their analyses (Azmi et al., 2018). Tanius et al. (2019) used a rating scale for their interview documents.…”