The Social and Academic Skills and the Marketability of UKM's Graduates

Abstract

This paper attempts to study the effects of the social and academic factors towards the marketability of UKM's graduates. 273 second year students were responded to questionnaire survey with respect to their perceptions on factors that influence their job marketability. Four instruments on social factors were employed consisting of 21 items; four instruments with 15 items were formed in the academic factor; Marketability was measured by eight instruments consisting of 24 items. By using Person's product moment correlation, all items were significantly contributed to the dependent variable with an estimated index (β) of ≥ 0.6 with p = <0.001. Furthermore, regression analysis was employed in which both social and academic factors had strong influence on students’ marketability (58.9% with F = 193.253 and p <0.001). However, social factor seemed to have an upper hand on academic factor (social factor with β =0.539; t = 7.398; p = <0.001 and academic factor with β =0.255; t = 3.504; p = <0.001). From this study, students’ soft skills are very important role in their marketability when they leave their universities. Therefore, universities must realize and take serious action in providing enough knowledge to students on various soft skills that are required by public and private sectors.