"Students' perception on UiTM Pahang co-curricular activities in fostering generic skills" / Norfsahwati Mohd Kurus

Having the academic skills alone is no guarantee of a graduate getting a job as a result of intense competition in the world job market today. Most employers would not only make academic achievement as the main criteria, but also put the Generic Skills (Soft Skills) in of graduates as an important additional selection criterion. In this regard, Generic Skills Development module for Institutions of Higher Education Malaysia launched on August 22, 2006 by the Honorable Minister of Higher Education seeks to produce quality human capital, skilled and ability to be competitive internationally. Seven elements of Generic Skills (GS) have been identified to be the attributes to be mastered by the graduates. The GS elements are Communication Skills, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills, Teamwork Skills, Continuous Learning and Information Management Entrepreneurial Skills, and Professional Ethics and Moral Leadership Skills. Soft skills are generic skills. Generic Skills are critical in a globalized world of work, especially with technology changing so fast. Therefore, graduates must be evaluated IPT through the Generic Skills who meet and comply with the requirements of the job market and daily lives which are increasingly challenging. Therefore, students' perception on UiTM Pahang co-curricular activities contribute to the improvement of Generic Skills are measured the seven dimensions of GS. It is important for students' to have the desire and ability to engage in the process of formation of human capital with first class mentality. Hence, the implementation of Generic Skills must be implemented by the university as a whole by involving all parties that are involved in educating the students. Co-curricular activities should not be seen as separate components and should be integrated optimally in order to create and generate the desired Generic Skills of the graduates. The objectives of conducting this research are determining students' perception towards co-curricular activities in fostering Generic Skills. The respondents of this research are Part 2 students from UiTM Pahang. The sampling method used by the researchers to analyze the data is, stratified sampling with the name list given. The analysis was done on PASW (SPSS version 18).