The Engineering Undergraduates Industrial Training Programme in Malaysia: Issues and Resolutions

Abstract

Electrical and electronics is one of the sectors that have led in the process of moving to Industry 4.0 and an important contributor in Malaysia’s economy as it is one of the twelve National Key Economic Area (NKEA) in the country’s Economic Transformation Program (ETP). Globalization era needs human capital resources with competency, competitive and multi-skilled to lead a country to be a developed country. Malaysia is one of developing country in the world that is facing the unemployment issue among engineering graduates. The delayed of education transformation will affect the graduates’ skills developments which can lead to unemployment among them because the demands of today’s industries cannot be met. Many employers admit that our engineering graduates lack in non-technical skills, but they seem fine in technical skills. Industrial training is a platform for students to develop nontechnical skills in the real workplace which difficult to be learned in the classroom. All bachelor's engineering students need to undergo industrial training for at least 8 weeks as stated in Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) manual. This paper presents the issues arise and resolutions done by faculty in minimizing the issues. A qualitative study has been done to twelve industrial training coordinators in 8 public and private universities to find the experts' opinions. Many issues have been highlighted with resolutions to minimize the issues. This is very important to assure students can gain valuable industrial training by effectively developing their non-technical skills to meet the industries demands.

The Impact of Industrial Revolution 4.0 and the Future of the Workforce: A Study on Malaysian IT Professionals

“…As for the current issue and challenges faced by the industry, this finding complemented several past studies. The analysis in Table 5 suggests that the emerging issues seem to happen in many MNC and SME companies aligned with previous studies (Azmi et al, 2018; Gleason, 2018; Yusoff et al, 2010). Some suggestions to address this issue is a centralized effort to improve soft skills at the tertiary level which has been implemented by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), a statutory accreditation agency of state tasked with enforcing Outcome-Based Education (OBE).…”

“…Attention to the role of Industry 4.0 has increased in HE, as university graduates are expected to meet industry expectations regarding the transition. Research indicates that such expectations have changed tremendously between the first and latest industrial revolutions in terms of the technical and non-technical skills required in the context of changing economic, market, and social activities (Azmi et al, 2018; Yusoff et al, 2010).…”

“…Nevertheless, traditionally valued, non-technical skills remain crucial. For instance, Azmi et al (2018) study of recent engineering graduates found that English, teamwork, critical thinking, problem-solving, and other soft skills are demanded by employers. Cognitive flexibility and emotional intelligence are also recognized as two new skills needed in the current environment (Gleason, 2018).…”

Exploring digital competencies domain and elements for information technology graduates in Malaysia

“…Table 20 shows Cronbach's alpha values for five components in the 4IRC construct [37]- [39]. The reliability value range between 0.701 and 0.55, suggesting that the items representing the constructs are reliable and acceptable because Cronbach's alpha value exceeding the minimum value of 0.7 [6], [40]. All the items also reliable to be used for next phase.…”

Skills of future workforce: skills gap based on perspectives from academicians and industry players

“…Unfortunately, the difference between what the industry expects and how the HEI prepare the graduates somehow causes an issue of skill gap. This issue, especially when unresolved, leads to the rise in the unemployment rate among graduates [16]. For instance, Tan et al [17] adopted qualitative inquiry in exploring the expectations of the industry experts and academicians on fresh graduates' skills.…”