A New Framework for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Soft Skills Course: Implementation and Challenges

Abstract

The importance of soft skills to the graduates to compete in the working world is undeniable. Soft skills are complementary to the academic qualifications held by students. Recognizing this, the University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) has established a new framework for Soft Skills courses to improve the existing framework of the course. The implementation of this course, which is started about 6 months or approximately 1 semester; is based on learning outcomes (LO) into 8 main goals. Each of these LO can be achieved by following all 8 Soft Skills courses that serve as a compulsory course in the university. These courses are conducted based on the concept of learning contracts involve an agreement between students and lecturers to determine the assignments/projects to be completed by students in a given period. Proof of learning outcomes should be uploaded by students to iFolio system that can be evaluated by evaluator (lecturers). The implementation of the new framework deals with various problems that pose challenges to both students and lecturers. There are 50 identified issues and challenges involving students, lecturers and the systems/operations. The main cause for the challenges is lack of understanding on the implementation of this course, since it is just running for its first semester. This results in a great deal of confusion which triggers the issues on the ground. However, every issue has a solution. Therefore, the management should take proactive steps as to properly deal with the issues and challenges.