The employers' and students' perspectives toward the generic skills of graduates as an indicator of work readiness / Norazliyati Yahya

Yahya, Norazliyati (2012) The employers' and students' perspectives toward the generic skills of graduates as an indicator of work readiness / Norazliyati Yahya. Masters thesis, Universiti Teknologi MARA.

Abstract

This study examines the employers’ and students’ perspectives towards university graduates’ work readiness as indicated by their generic skills. The specific objectives of the study are 1) to examine the perception of employers and students (science and social science based) towards generic skills required and displayed by fresh graduates; 2) to examine the perception of science and social science students towards generic skills being taught at the universities; 3) to identify the mismatch between employers’ and students’ perceptions (science and social science based) toward generic skills required in terms of level of priority; and 4) to determine the priority of generic skills in term of rank as perceived by employers and students (science and social science based). This study used simple random sampling and samples of this study consist of 33 employers and 107 students. The data were collected using an instrument in the form of a questionnaire and the data was analysed using descriptive statistic analysis. From the study, the findings revealed that graduates’ generic skills were lower than the requirements of the employers and there were mismatches between the required generic skills as perceived by employers and students as found in Communication Skills, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills, Leadership Skills and Lifelong Learning and Information Management. There were also mismatches between the generic skills being emphasised in the universities and generic skills displayed by graduates as perceived by employers and students as found in Teamwork Skills, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills and Communication Skills. Further analysis revealed that there were also mismatches between employers’ and students’ perceptions toward generic skills required in terms of level of priority as found in Integrity and Professional Ethics, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills, Teamwork Skills and Lifelong Learning and Information Management. The study suggested the rank of generic skills as perceived by employers in the final part of the analysis as an effort to improve the acquisition of generic skills amongst the students of higher education institutions. It is hoped that this study could provide significant insights and contribute to the improvement in the development and implementation of generic skills through the curriculum of the university in order to foster a better acquisition of generic skills among the university students.

Metadata

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Creators:
Creators
Email / ID Num.
Yahya, Norazliyati
2009905123
Contributors:
Contribution
Name
Email / ID Num.
Thesis advisor
Aperapa Singh, Parmjit Singh (Associate Professor Dr.)
UNSPECIFIED
Subjects: L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > Higher Education > Graduate education > Graduate students
Divisions: Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam > Faculty of Education
Programme: Master of Education (Educational Management and Leadership)
Keywords: Generic skills; Graduates; Indicator of work; Readiness
Date: June 2012
URI: https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/15328
Edit Item
Edit Item

Download

[thumbnail of TM_NORAZLIYATI YAHYA ED 12_5.PDF] Text
TM_NORAZLIYATI YAHYA ED 12_5.PDF

Download (3MB)

Digital Copy

Digital (fulltext) is available at:

Physical Copy

Physical status and holdings:
Item Status:

ID Number

15328

Indexing

Statistic

Statistic details