The Employability of Undergraduate Students in a Malaysian Higher Educational Institution

Abstract

Employability is perceived to be the capability to perform oneself adequately within the labour market. However, graduate’s unemployment has always been highlighted as a critical issue in Malaysia. Therefore, this study aims to explore the employability level of potential Malaysian undergraduate students from Higher Educational Institution in Malaysia. This study used quantitative research approach where a questionnaire was used for data collection. A total of 425 final year undergraduate students from Faculty of Management and Faculty of Computing and Informatics participated in this study. Seven employability attributes namely academic, conscientiousness, leadership, critical thinking, teamwork, human and social capital, work and career resilience attributes were examined. Findings indicated that majority of the respondents obtained higher scores in teamwork, work and career resilience and conscientiousness attributes. On the other hand, the respondents were less confident in academic, leadership as well as human and social capital attributes. Findings also indicated that employability among undergraduate students are significantly different by students’ academic achievement and student’s disciplinary area but not gender. Therefore, curriculum review is important to ensure that the subjects offered in the higher educational institute are preparing the students with employability attributes. The study outcomes contribute to policy makers and academicians to understand the quality and the readiness of the potential undergraduate student who is soon going to enter the labor market for improvement purpose.