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A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills

The main function of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) is to produce skilled and knowledgeable workforce who are able to not only function with minimal guidance but also to contribute effectively to the hiring organizations. Many studies have indicated that most HEIs have somewhat similar cours...

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Main Authors:	Abdul Karim, Abdul Malek, Abdullah, Nabilah, Abdul Rahman, Abdul Malek, Noah, Sidek M, Wan Jaafar, Wan Marzuki, Othman, Joharry, Borhan, Lihanna, Badushah, Jamaluddin, Said, Hamdan
Format:	Article
Language:	English English
Published:	Springer Netherlands 2012
Subjects:	LB2300 Higher Education
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/26940/1/my3sAPER.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/26940/4/Nationwide_comparative_study.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/26940/ http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12564-012-9205-1
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spelling	my.iium.irep.269402014-07-23T02:15:14Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/26940/ A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills Abdul Karim, Abdul Malek Abdullah, Nabilah Abdul Rahman, Abdul Malek Noah, Sidek M Wan Jaafar, Wan Marzuki Othman, Joharry Borhan, Lihanna Badushah, Jamaluddin Said, Hamdan LB2300 Higher Education The main function of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) is to produce skilled and knowledgeable workforce who are able to not only function with minimal guidance but also to contribute effectively to the hiring organizations. Many studies have indicated that most HEIs have somewhat similar course content and thrived at producing students with good academic achievement. But what differentiated them from one another is their ability to develop knowledge workers with the right employability skills or ‘soft skills’ such as communication, problemsolving, interpersonal and other skills deemed important as the foundations by which they require to function at work regardless of the nature of employment. This paper reports findings of a large-scale study looking into the soft skills attainment of Malaysian HEI graduates. A quantitative survey design was employed whereby data were obtained through the administration of an instrument called the Malaysian Soft Skills Scale (My3S). My3S consists of 180 items covering seven elements namely Communications, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Teamwork, Moral and Professional Ethics, Leadership, Life Long Learning and Entrepreneurial aspects. The mean scores for the seven My3S subscales were found to be between 6.3 and 7.8 from the maximum possible score of 10. Specifically, comparisons were made between graduates of public and private institutions with respect to the seven elements. Findings of the study suggest that, in general, students of public HEIs scored higher in all seven skills. With respect to gender, male students scored higher than female students in all elements except for teamwork skills and moral and professional ethics. A comparison between fields of study showed that for both types of HEIs, technical students scored the highest in all skills except for moral and professional ethics. Based on the findings of this study, it is suggested that in addition to offering specific courses to improve soft skills attainment, HEIs need to embed soft skills in their academic curricula. Springer Netherlands 2012 Article REM application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/26940/1/my3sAPER.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/26940/4/Nationwide_comparative_study.pdf Abdul Karim, Abdul Malek and Abdullah, Nabilah and Abdul Rahman, Abdul Malek and Noah, Sidek M and Wan Jaafar, Wan Marzuki and Othman, Joharry and Borhan, Lihanna and Badushah, Jamaluddin and Said, Hamdan (2012) A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills. Asia Pacific Education Review, 13 (3). pp. 541-548. ISSN 1598-1037 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12564-012-9205-1 10.1007/s12564-012-9205-1
institution	Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia
building	IIUM Library
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	International Islamic University Malaysia
content_source	IIUM Repository (IREP)
url_provider	http://irep.iium.edu.my/
language	English English
topic	LB2300 Higher Education
spellingShingle	LB2300 Higher Education Abdul Karim, Abdul Malek Abdullah, Nabilah Abdul Rahman, Abdul Malek Noah, Sidek M Wan Jaafar, Wan Marzuki Othman, Joharry Borhan, Lihanna Badushah, Jamaluddin Said, Hamdan A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills
description	The main function of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) is to produce skilled and knowledgeable workforce who are able to not only function with minimal guidance but also to contribute effectively to the hiring organizations. Many studies have indicated that most HEIs have somewhat similar course content and thrived at producing students with good academic achievement. But what differentiated them from one another is their ability to develop knowledge workers with the right employability skills or ‘soft skills’ such as communication, problemsolving, interpersonal and other skills deemed important as the foundations by which they require to function at work regardless of the nature of employment. This paper reports findings of a large-scale study looking into the soft skills attainment of Malaysian HEI graduates. A quantitative survey design was employed whereby data were obtained through the administration of an instrument called the Malaysian Soft Skills Scale (My3S). My3S consists of 180 items covering seven elements namely Communications, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Teamwork, Moral and Professional Ethics, Leadership, Life Long Learning and Entrepreneurial aspects. The mean scores for the seven My3S subscales were found to be between 6.3 and 7.8 from the maximum possible score of 10. Specifically, comparisons were made between graduates of public and private institutions with respect to the seven elements. Findings of the study suggest that, in general, students of public HEIs scored higher in all seven skills. With respect to gender, male students scored higher than female students in all elements except for teamwork skills and moral and professional ethics. A comparison between fields of study showed that for both types of HEIs, technical students scored the highest in all skills except for moral and professional ethics. Based on the findings of this study, it is suggested that in addition to offering specific courses to improve soft skills attainment, HEIs need to embed soft skills in their academic curricula.
format	Article
author	Abdul Karim, Abdul Malek Abdullah, Nabilah Abdul Rahman, Abdul Malek Noah, Sidek M Wan Jaafar, Wan Marzuki Othman, Joharry Borhan, Lihanna Badushah, Jamaluddin Said, Hamdan
author_facet	Abdul Karim, Abdul Malek Abdullah, Nabilah Abdul Rahman, Abdul Malek Noah, Sidek M Wan Jaafar, Wan Marzuki Othman, Joharry Borhan, Lihanna Badushah, Jamaluddin Said, Hamdan
author_sort	Abdul Karim, Abdul Malek
title	A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills
title_short	A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills
title_full	A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills
title_fullStr	A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills
title_full_unstemmed	A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills
title_sort	nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills
publisher	Springer Netherlands
publishDate	2012
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/26940/1/my3sAPER.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/26940/4/Nationwide_comparative_study.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/26940/ http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12564-012-9205-1
_version_	1643609236914044928
score	13.211869

A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills

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