The rising prominence of micro-credentials started during the COVID-19 pandemic, where online resources offered competency-building opportunities for the work-from-home (WFH) human capital. During this pandemic, traditional universities faced total halt to face-to-face lectures, but ways paved for open and distance learning (ODL) universities to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the industry's expectations on the key employability skills of fresh graduates in the communication and media industry. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has raised the question of whether the university should produce work-ready graduates with employability skills. Driven by the theory of human…

This study aims to examine the level of employer satisfaction towards industrial training students of the UiTM Pahang Civil Engineering Diploma Program and identify employer satisfaction factors for industrial training students from aspects of knowledge, personality, generic skills, and soft skills. This study is focused on semester four students…

This study aims to examine employers' expectations of knowledge and skills in accounting graduates before hiring them. Using a qualitative approach on accounting practitioners and academics, this study shows that the expectations employers place on accounting students in the Industry 4.0 environment is set to change significantly, particularly in…

This paper uses a 2016/2017 sample of 1107 freshly minted university graduates from a public and a private university in Malaysia. Against a backdrop of an institutional setting very much different from that of western countries' and issues of high living costs and graduate unemployment, we analyse how academic performance affects graduates'…

This study further extends a theoretical model of psychological empowerment by investigating the relationships between self-efficacy, self-confidence and self-esteem. A sample of 383 of Malaysian undergraduates participating in Work Integrated Learning (WIL) programmes across five public universities is used to test the model employing…

Purpose: This paper compares and contrasts graduate accountant skills and employers' expectations in South East Asia (SEA). Design/methodology/approach: We analyse the employers' expectation performance gap (EPG) in three countries -- Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam -- to provide a reflection on current professional accounting development in SEA.…

This paper examines the role of higher education and higher education providers, more specifically, regarding employability. The paper draws upon a three-year research project examining the key stakeholders in this process; from parents, to students, to teachers, to institutions, to employers. The paper offers critical insight and analysis into…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the perspectives of Malaysian employers and students on the need for English language proficiency and skills for employment. Design/methodology/approach: Interviews were conducted with employers from various organisations. Additionally, questionnaires were disseminated to undergraduates at four…

Employability is always used as a measure to gauge the value of graduates. Hence, most past studies attempted to identify competencies that can enhance the level of employability of graduates today. While these past studies found some competencies to be more important than others, the influence of graduate's attitude, mainly their level of…

As human capital came to the fore in the discourse on economic growth, so too has the concepts of employment prospects and employability attributes as students transit to the labor market. This paper examines three issues in this transition in the context of Malaysia. These are, first, how important is employment prospects a consideration when…

The authors examine the issue of employability of university accounting students from the perspectives of accounting firm employers, junior auditors, accounting lecturers, and accounting students. Areas of investigation include perceived importance of employability skills and desirable personal qualities; and early employment problems encountered…

Malaysia has made significant progress in advancing access to education over the last two decades, having achieved the education goals of the UN's Millennium Development Goals. Unfortunately, this has not been accompanied by quality improvement, with reports of "unemployable" graduates a frequent refrain. This paper reports on a study of…

Purpose: This study examined the effectiveness of Finishing School programmes in enhancing the employability of graduates from institutions of higher learning. The perceptions of the graduates and employers towards the effectiveness of the programmes were analyzed. The effectiveness of Finishing School programmes evaluated through a graduate…

Organizations have always placed emphasis on the public's voices as an effort to continue enhancing their service towards society. University's performance and its relevance in a nation is highly dependent on the marketability of its students. The ability to widely distribute their students and to heighten their mobility in society and in the work…