Perceptions of Undergraduate Students of Islamic Studies of the Importance of Soft Skills for Education and Future Career at King Khalid University

Mesfer Ahmed Mesfer Alwadai

doi:10.32996/ijllt.2021.4.9.11

Abstract

This paper examines Islamic undergraduate students’ awareness and perceptions of the importance of soft skills for education and future career among undergraduate students of Islamic Studies at King Khalid University. The study is carried out to redirect the focus of undergraduate students' training and development goals to the acquisition of soft skills, which have a very high effect on improving undergraduate student’s performances. This study aims to discover student awareness and perception towards the importance of soft skills among engineering students. This study adopted a quantitative research approach. A questionnaire was administered and used to gather the data. Also, the questionnaire was specifically designed to examine the importance of soft skills for education and future career for Islamic Studies undergraduate students. The target population in this study consisted of 4500 Islamic undergraduate students. The purposive sample was 300 students were randomly selected from the population with an 85 percent confidence level within 0.05 risk of sampling error. The findings of the study indicated that Islamic undergraduate students at King Khalid University were aware of the importance of soft skills for their education and future carrier as well. Participants ranked the following soft skills as the essential skills for Islamic undergraduate students' improving decision making, besides a greater willingness to accept the ideas of others, improving leadership skills, oral and verbal communication, a gain in self-confidence, small group discussions, and learned more about technology and various applications. They thought soft skills are important for accelerating students’ academic performance and developing the learning environment while less important for finding a better job opportunity and considering it a primary employment requirement by modern workplaces.

Highlights

1 Today, many changes have taken place in educational environments worldwide to meet the Saudi Vision 2030 requirements and to survive in the current global business competition
The following sub-research questions are posed to address some issues related to the study: RQ1 What skills can be categorized as soft skills based on Islamic undergraduate students’ perceptions? RQ2 how do Islamic undergraduate students rate the importance of soft skills for their education and future carrier?
The results obtained from the analysis of the questionnaire identify the perceptions of Islamic undergraduate students of soft skills and the importance of soft skills for education and future career

Summary

Introduction

1 Today, many changes have taken place in educational environments worldwide to meet the Saudi Vision 2030 requirements and to survive in the current global business competition. Employees regardless, of their educational levels, have acquired both hard and soft skills. Employers are looking for vital soft skills obtained by employees during academic study and work experience, rather than jest degree-specific knowledge. Unlike academic or disciplinary knowledge, which is subject-based, content-specific and formally assessed, soft skills comprise a range of independent competencies, albeit often developed by formal curricula and rarely assessed explicitly.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion