Authors : Amar Hisham Jaaffar, Hazril Izwar Ibrahim, Khairul Annuar, Mohammad Shah and Abdul Hadi Zulkafli
Abstract: Studies examining employers’ perceptions of employability skills acquired by higher education undergraduates’ students after their participation in Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) programs are limited. Employers’ perspective with regard to applicability of WIL programme is important to ensure undergraduates are provided with the relevant skills; to facilitate the transfer of the acquired skills and to contribute to the profiling of industry-relevant skills and competencies for higher education undergraduate programmes. This study examines 105 employers’ perception of the importance of alignment between university WIL programmes and what skills are vital for the employers, undergraduate’s employability skills satisfaction rate and which employability skills are important in the future. Findings indicate majority of the employers perceived that there is alignment between what is taught in university and workplace environment and majority of the employers indicated to have high satisfaction of the undergraduates’ employability skills except for entrepreneurial skills. Employer also opined that undergraduate’s communication skills; analytical and problem solving skills; and ability to adapt to and act in new situation matter to them most in next 5-10 years. The findings provide a useful insight into employers’ overall WIL experience and suggestions for future improvements.
Amar Hisham Jaaffar, Hazril Izwar Ibrahim, Khairul Annuar, Mohammad Shah and Abdul Hadi Zulkafli, 2016. Work-Integrated Learning and Graduate Employability Skills: The Employers’ Perspective. The Social Sciences, 11: 5270-5274.