Graduate Employability: New Graduates Perceptions of Important, Urgency and Performance of Employability Skills in Malaysia

Author(s)

Erni Tanius , Husna bt Johari , Astri Yulia , Chin Siong Heng , Khairul Hanim Pazim ,

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Volume 7 - December 2018 (12)

Abstract

Graduate employability becomes a severe issue globally; industry, university, and government blame each other for the matter getting worse. This study focus on new graduates opinion of important, urgency and their performance on employability skills required by the employer in order to be employed by industry. 1656 new graduates from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak participated in this study. The questionnaire used to gather the information, meanwhile the employability skills variables, emphasis on four types of skill; they are basic skills, applied, interpersonal and 21st-century skills. The data analyzed by using SPSS and descriptive statistics, correlation, as well multiple regressions use to answer the research question.  The finding indicated that new graduates believed that the 21st-century skills were the most important factor to predict employment opportunity while the basic skills were the least important. The correlation results suggest that the perceived importance of the aspects highly related with urgency. The result also found that interpersonal skills negatively linked with employment opportunity. Finally, the study suggested that industry and university need to collaborate on identifying and developing employability skills among new graduates

Keywords

graduate employability, perception, important, urgency, performance, employability skills, Malaysia

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