Ali, Jamal and Lim, Hock Eam and Ismail, Russayani and Abdul Rahim, Fauziah and Md Isa, Filzah and Ismail, Ariff (2011) Achieving graduate employability through finishing school programme. In: Second International Soft Science Conference 2011 ( 2nd ISSC 2011), 23-25 November 2011, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

In today’s competitive and challenging world, an excellent university’s degree is measured by the quality of its graduates. Obtaining a degree alone will no longer ensure the ability of graduates getting jobs. It is believed that apart from academic qualification, graduates need to equip themselves with soft skills such as communication, teamwork,critical thinking and entrepreneurship. These soft skills are considered as the added value which should make them more employable in graduate labour market. With regards to the issue, this study examines the perception of Malaysian university graduates towards the effectiveness of ‘Finishing School’ programme in enhancing the graduates’ soft skills and level of employability.Furthermore, it also analyzes the strategies of local and overseas higher learning institution on the implementation of ‘Finishing School’ programme.Data for this study were obtained from both the secondary and primary sources.The primary data involve a large sample (n = 1092) of university graduates from public universities. The findings from the stocktaking indicate that there are similarities in terms of types of soft skills emphasized by the local and overseas higher learning institutions in their FS programme. Findings from the focus group interviews of officers at the management level from various companies showed that skills ranging from ICT, communication,leadership, entrepreneurship, problem solving and human relation are important for future graduates.Interestingly most of the skills mentioned have long been emphasized by the local higher learning institutions through their ‘Finishing School’ programme. Hence, it is concluded that the existing ‘Finishing School’ programme is indeed in the right direction in achieving its desired objectives, however there are still room for improvements especially in making it more interesting to encourage huge participation from the graduating students.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Additional Information:	Organised by Research and Innovation Management Centre (RIMC) UUM
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
Divisions:	School of Economics, Finance & Banking
Depositing User:	Mrs. Norazmilah Yaakub
Date Deposited:	25 Feb 2012 07:29
Last Modified:	24 Apr 2016 01:19
URI:	https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/5079

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