The Development of Employability Skills’ Diploma 3 Mechanical Engineering Students, Faculty of Engineering, Medan State University

Abstract

Graduates of Diploma 3 (D3) program in Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Medan State University (Unimed) as labor forces face quantitative and qualitative matching problems. The qualitative matching problem that must be known and addressed immediately is employability skills. The purpose of this study is to obtain a description of the development of employability skills’ D3 Mechanical Engineering students. The subjects of this study were D3 Mechanical Engineering students enrolled in 2017/2018 academic year (62 students)). This research is a cross sectional study. To collect data, the employability skills self-inventory instrument was used. Statistical analysis to describe: (a) differences in employability skills between classes used Analysis of Variance, and (b) further analysis to find out sub components of employability skills (technological skills, fundamental skills, personal management skills, and team work skills) between classes used Multivariate Analysis of Variance. The research findings: (a) there are differences between inter-class employability skills, (b) 2017 technological skills are significantly lower than class of 2016, 2015, and 2014 at α = 5%; 2017 fundamental skills are lower, significantly from the 2016 and 2015 classes at α = 10%; (c) Personal management skills and team work skills are not different from all classes.