Important Skills That Employers Are Looking for in Graduates
1.0 Introduction
In the current alma mater generation such as the unemployed graduates, they are facing many challenges in Malaysia. Furthermore, future graduates will encounter the same obstacles in acquiring a job, thus leading to increase in jobless rate. This is due to fresh graduates did not reach the required skills for each job sector they needed to work in and also high expectations from the industries. Besides that, they couldn't perform well in contributing to the company once they start their work due to the lack of preparation and experiences. "Malaysia University did not prepare "work-ready" for graduates because the country's education system is too exam oriented."(Fong 2004, Henwood 2007) According to Bowden et al. (2000), there are three principle arguments for the importance and inclusion of graduate skills in higher education, all of which relate to the shifting role of universities. First, it is now considered the role of universities to produce citizens, who can be agents for social change and good in the community. Second, upon graduation, students face an uncertain future and need to be prepared for such. Third, employers expect to see a certain set of generic capabilities demonstrated by graduates. Graduate skills are argued to be able to provide for and achieve the above assumptions and propositions.
The purpose of this report is to allow the future graduates to understand what they lack of and what to be improved or focus what they need to apply in the skills in order to get a job. Thus, government objectives in improving the nation's human resources and optimizing the utilisation of manpower through the systematic matching of job seekers to job vacancies can be achieved. Through this report there would be the scope and suggestions of five essential skills needed for the future graduates in order to get a job, which includes communication skills, teamwork skills, problem-solving skills, technologies skills, planning and organizing
In the current alma mater generation such as the unemployed graduates, they are facing many challenges in Malaysia. Furthermore, future graduates will encounter the same obstacles in acquiring a job, thus leading to increase in jobless rate. This is due to fresh graduates did not reach the required skills for each job sector they needed to work in and also high expectations from the industries. Besides that, they couldn't perform well in contributing to the company once they start their work due to the lack of preparation and experiences. "Malaysia University did not prepare "work-ready" for graduates because the country's education system is too exam oriented."(Fong 2004, Henwood 2007) According to Bowden et al. (2000), there are three principle arguments for the importance and inclusion of graduate skills in higher education, all of which relate to the shifting role of universities. First, it is now considered the role of universities to produce citizens, who can be agents for social change and good in the community. Second, upon graduation, students face an uncertain future and need to be prepared for such. Third, employers expect to see a certain set of generic capabilities demonstrated by graduates. Graduate skills are argued to be able to provide for and achieve the above assumptions and propositions.
The purpose of this report is to allow the future graduates to understand what they lack of and what to be improved or focus what they need to apply in the skills in order to get a job. Thus, government objectives in improving the nation's human resources and optimizing the utilisation of manpower through the systematic matching of job seekers to job vacancies can be achieved. Through this report there would be the scope and suggestions of five essential skills needed for the future graduates in order to get a job, which includes communication skills, teamwork skills, problem-solving skills, technologies skills, planning and organizing