Graduates In Malaysia Research Articles

Soft Skills Competencies of Quantity Surveying Graduates in Malaysia: Employers’ Views and Expectations

Various organizations employ Quantity Surveying (QS) graduates. The diversity of employment opportunities bring the needs of QS graduates to equip with the key competencies to be able to work effectively and efficiently with other professionals. The QS profession faces threats to its traditional roles and functions as a result of changing client needs in the construction industry advances in technology and the particular needs of a developing economy. Within the context of the current situation, the globalization is pushing QS graduates to become competitive in term of soft skills that they possess such as communication skills, problem-solving skills, leadership, and teamwork. This research adopted a survey approach, using a questionnaire as the data collection technique. 80 questionnaires were distributed to employers, or human resource (HR) managers of the organizations that had QS graduates working with them. This paper reports on the views and expectations of the employers towards the soft skills of QS graduates in Malaysia. The employers were asked to rate their views towards current QS graduates’ soft skills’ performance in Malaysia as well as to assess their expectations of these graduates’ soft skills based on a five-point Likert scale. From the findings, a ‘competency gap’ between the current local university QS graduates’ soft skills’ performance and their expectations were identified, and discussed. This paper also presents the recommendations made by the employers towards Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia producing QS graduates in order to improve and prepare the graduates for their work place.

Expressions of Fresh Graduates: Employee Loyalty in Malaysia

This study identifies the attitude and organisational factors which are the main criteria that affect employee loyalty among fresh graduates in Malaysia. By analysing the causes of the increase of employee turnover rate, the research is able to bring out the solutions on how to solve this critical issue. Based on theoretical considerations, a model was proposed to investigate employee loyalty via turnover intention. The questionnaire was adopted from previous research which had been done by Malaysian researches. 210 questionnaires were distributed to fresh graduates via Google Docs and printed copies throughout Malaysia but only 200 copies of samples were usable. Overall, the study finds that job satisfaction has a negative relationship with turnover intention. The analyses were carried out to test the hypotheses. The results have shown that occupation level and monthly salary are not the most important factors to create job satisfaction. The regression test has illustrated that fresh graduates showed less significance on job satisfaction with the developed variables via factor analysis. However, gender was a moderating factor between job satisfaction and the variables.This paper only examines fresh graduates in Malaysia at one point of time and provides new insights into the factors which affect employee loyalty in Malaysia.

The Paradigm Shift of the Legal Education in Malaysia: A Research on the Global Perspectives

The professional training of law graduates in Malaysia has intersects with multiple avenues into the legal profession requiring variant standards of admittance. This scenario has instigated the need to remonstrate the existing state of affairs. Therefore, there has been a great urge by the Bar Council prompting a Common Bar Course (CBC) an90d Examination (CBE) marshalling a new direction in the training of law graduates for legal practice to become a single entry point into the legal profession for both local and foreign law graduates. However, the path to the implementation of CBE into the legal education is not as attractive as it is thought it would be, referring to the amount of effort needed to progress along the way. It has been an ongoing debate among the law practitioners on whether it should be implemented or vice versa, considering some substantial factors. This article begins with the introduction of the legal education in Malaysia. Secondly, it analyses the current entry requirements into the legal profession and how it fair with the standards across the Commonwealth jurisdictions. Thirdly, it examines the global development of legal education systems, the legal framework of CBC together with the justifications by the proponents and the objections raised against such proposal. Then this article attempts to deliberate on the need of the reformation of the legal education in tandem with the global development of legal education across common jurisdictions. Finally the article concludes on the viability of the CBC proposal or any other proposal to resolve the legal education debacle in Malaysia.

Critical factors of service quality in a graduate school of Malaysia

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate the service quality of a higher educational institute in Malaysia based on the seven dimensions, namely administrative service, tangibles, academic programmes, academic staff, delivery of teaching, assurance, and empathy of academic staff. Design/methodology/approach – This study surveyed 221 students of IIUM Graduate School of Management (GSM) based on the self-administrative research questionnaire. The research data were analyzed by using exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, independent samples t-test, and multiple regression analysis. Findings – Results indicate IIUM GSM students have positive and significant perception on administrative service, tangibles, delivery teaching and assurance, but they do not have significant perception on academic programmes, academic staff and empathy of academic staff. Research limitations/implications – This research only conducted in a graduate school of Malaysia and this result might not represent all Malaysian graduate schools. Originality/value – This study's major contribution is that it focuses on the critical factors of service quality in a graduate school of Malaysia and measures the service quality according to the Malaysian contexts.

Unemployed Graduates’ Perceptions on their General Communication Skills at Job Interviews

Abstract This study is an attempt to assess the general communication skills of unemployed graduates at job interviews. The sample population comprised unemployed graduates who took part in the 1 Malaysia Training Scheme (SL1 M program) set up by the Malaysian government to address the issue of unemployment amongst the Malaysian graduates. The mixed method research was employed using research instruments comprising survey questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. Questionnaires using a five point Likert scale were administered to 506 respondents where 337 were finally regarded as useable. Meanwhile face-to-face interviews were conducted with thirteen unemployed graduates from the same group of respondents in the SL1 M program. Descriptive analysis indicated that more than half of the respondents were in the range of moderate to low level in their general communication skills. Independent t-tests carried out indicated that there were significant differences for gender and types of higher education institutions (HEIs) in relation to general communication skills. Male unemployed graduates seemed to have higher general communication skills compared to their female counterparts, while unemployed graduates from the private HEIs (IPTS) have better general communication skills than those from the public HEIs (IPTAs). The ANOVA tests carried out with MUET band scores and general communication skills showed an upward trend where the higher the MUET band score, the higher the mean of general communication skills. Findings were further enhanced by the qualitative data that conformed to the data obtained from the quantitative analysis. Another equally important finding of the study is the association between general communication skills and communication apprehension. This finding opens up the prospect for further research, that general communication skills need to be assessed in relation to communication apprehension among unemployed graduates in Malaysia.

The Effect of Life Satisfaction and Religiosity on Happiness among Post Graduates in Malaysia

The main objective of this research is to examine the effect of life satisfaction and religiosity on happiness among postgraduates in Malaysia. A total of 124 questionnaires were applied to selected postgraduates in three public universities. A multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the effect of life satisfaction and religiosity on happiness among respondents. As a result from the data collected, it was found that, all factors (life satisfaction and religiosity) were significantly give an effect to individual’s happiness. Among predictors, the variable of Life Satisfaction gives the strongest effect to individual’s happiness as compared to religiosity and frequent of prayer. This research can be beneficial to the field of happiness study especially in Malaysia context which comprise of multi racial citizens.

Employment issues among Malaysian information and communication technology (ICT) graduates: A case study

In the 21 st century, there has been a growing concern about the role of higher education institution and how well they are satisfying the employers’ needs. Malaysian Prime Minister mentioned that only 23% of the workforce was highly skilled in year 2010. This percentage is much lower, compared with other developed countries. It was stressed that, there is a need to improve the composition of highly skilled workers to at least 37% by 2015, to become a developed nation. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the causes of unemployment among Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) graduates in Malaysia and the need for changes in the curriculum. Data were collected based on quantitative and qualitative study. Questionnaires were used to gather information from 296 current undergraduate students and 248 graduate students. These students are from public University in Malaysia. Besides distributing questionnaires, short interviews were also carried out. This paper concludes that the higher education institutions need to reengineer their curriculum in order to keep them updated in-line with employers need in the job market.

Gender identity and career aspiration to top management of Malaysian graduate students

This article examines the relationship between gender identity and career aspirations of a group of Iranian international postgraduate students studying at a Malaysian public university. This study uses the Farmer's Achievement Motivation Theory and Astin's Sociopsychological Model of Career Choice as theoretical framework. The data were collected via a questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. The results showed that masculinity had a significant positive effect on respondents' aspirations to top management.

English

In the 21 st century, there has been a growing concern about the role of higher education institution and how well they are satisfying the employers’ needs. Malaysian Prime Minister mentioned that only 23% of the workforce was highly skilled in year 2010. This percentage is much lower, compared with other developed countries. It was stressed that, there is a need to improve the composition of highly skilled workers to at least 37% by 2015, to become a developed nation. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the causes of unemployment among Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) graduates in Malaysia and the need for changes in the curriculum. Data were collected based on quantitative and qualitative study. Questionnaires were used to gather information from 296 current undergraduate students and 248 graduate students. These students are from public University in Malaysia. Besides distributing questionnaires, short interviews were also carried out. This paper concludes that the higher education institutions need to reengineer their curriculum in order to keep them updated in-line with employers need in the job market.

Perception on professional capabilities of accounting graduates

The main purpose of the present study is to examine the gap between differences in views of the practitioners and educators in terms of professional capabilities in Malaysia. The study was conducted on five universities in Malaysia. The results indicate that there is a gap in terms of knowledge, skills and values of accounting graduates in Malaysia. The findings of this study provide strategy to reformulate criteria necessary to educate and train students, as well as re-rank priorities against professional capabilities and pedagogy in the light of changing environment. Ultimately, to ensure the supply of accounting graduates from universities is well-balanced and matched with what is required by the demand in the marketplace worldwide.

Employability and Sustainability in the Graduate Job Market: A Case Study of ICT Graduates in Malaysia

The emergence of digital technologies and the transformation to a knowledge-based economy has created a significant demand for workers who are highly skilled in the use of information and communication technology (ICT). One of the significant impacts of the rapid growth and diffusion of ICT is a shortage of such highly qualified workers. However, the shortage is not just associated with there not being enough ICT workers. Currently, in Malaysia, there is also a major concern expressed by employers that the shortage of ICT workers is due to a skills shortage and employability issues, particularly among ICT graduates.

Learning for the workplace: a case study in graduate employees' generic competencies

PurposeThis study seeks to address empirically the current state of generic competencies considered to be important for successful work performance among Malaysian graduate employees. This study also aims to explain the elements of generic competencies that are needed to complement the tertiary training of students in workplace learning.Design/methodology/approachUsing the survey method, questionnaires (validated by a pilot test and with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.81) were administered to a purposive sample of graduate employees (n=32).FindingsResponses were factor‐analysed and correlated through the Pearson product‐moment correlation procedure. Drawing from the significant correlations ( p<0.01) of the factors extracted, this study highlights interpersonal skills, knowledge‐acquiring skills and flexibility as being highly important in contributing toward success in work performance. Additionally, these graduate employees also expressed value‐improving skills, practical orientation abilities and cognitive skills as being important for successful work performance. These generic competencies are important for enabling Malaysian graduate employees to transfer learning from the classroom to the workplace for success in work performance.Research limitations/implicationsGiven the financial constraints, this study is limited to Malaysian graduate employees. Therefore, the generalisability of the results is limited to other situations that are similar to the one discussed in this study.Originality/valueIn the Malaysian context, tertiary training probably needs to consider the development of generic competencies in students so as to enable them to transfer tertiary learning to meet the changing demands of the workplace when they graduate. In this direction additional research is recommended in Malaysia so that graduates can be better trained to contribute successfully in the workplace.

Motivation for nurses undertaking a post‐registration qualification in Malaysia

To present several key factors that motivated Malaysian registered nurses to undertake a post-registration degree through an Australian university. The overall research study, from which this paper is drawn, looked at the professional learning of Malaysian registered nurses and the subsequent impact on their careers. In Malaysia, the demand for a degree for Malaysian nurses provided the impetus for this offshore post-registration nursing programme, developed as a twinning venture between an Australian university and a Malaysian private institution. The degree programme was conducted largely in Malaysia with a 4-week residential block in Australia. As this larger research study investigated the graduates' personal perspectives of their experiences of this post-registration degree programme, the case study approach was the appropriate methodological choice. Twelve Malaysian graduate nurses were recruited voluntarily from the first cohort of students who completed the Bachelor of Health Science-Nursing (post-registration) 5 years post graduation. Ethical procedures were observed. The data were collected through individual, semi-structured and focus interviews, which took place in Malaysia and were personally tape-recorded and transcribed by the researcher. The motivation for formal learning emanated from the participants' personal and professional lives. Within these two domains, four separate but interrelated reasons emerged: work-related stimulation and self-growth; compliance with management requirements; professional advancement and keeping up with the profession; and availability and accessibility. However, in a culture where higher education is highly priced and yet scarce, the programmes' availability and accessibility were ultimate factors.

Management’s perception of MBA graduates in Malaysia

The purpose of MBA education is to provide training in the theory and practice of business management. In Malaysia, several public and private institutions of higher learning offer such programmes. A survey of 112 organizations revealed that 67 per cent had executives with MBA degrees in their employment while the rest cited demand for high salaries and company policy to promote internal staff as two main reasons for not doing so. About 73 per cent said that they had no special preference for graduates from specific business schools. MBAs with good work ethics, sound management and leadership skills as well as critical thinking and analytical abilities, are more likely to be hired. In future, employers expect more MBAs with the ability to understand local, Asian and global business practices.