Analysis on the Employability Skills of UNITEN Graduates in Engineering Program

Abstract

It has been observed for quite number of years that some engineering students are unemployed. One of the important reasons for it is the lack of necessary skills in them. The university curriculum has to develop well enough to prepare the students with the desired skills. Engineering employability skills correlate significantly on the industries' employability criteria. Some important skills required in engineering graduates are communication and problem solving skills; possess good leadership and teamwork skills; professionalism and lifelong learning; managerial and entrepreneurial skills. College of engineering in UNITEN implemented the key-course approach in the evaluation of the program outcomes. The program outcomes are the expected traits that UNITEN students should have upon graduation. This paper discusses the assessment results obtained by students in their key courses in relation to the respective program outcomes. The results in terms of grades and cumulative grade point average will determine the students' preparedness to become competent engineers. It is found that the graduates in engineering program from UNITEN satisfy excellently most of the industries' employability criteria. The selected key courses linking to these criteria were also shown in a regression analysis as significant contributing factors to the final cumulative grade point average of engineering graduates. Many of them attained good cumulative grade point averages of 3.00 and above and satisfy all the top five skills, which are communication, professionalism, teamwork ability, problem solving and lifelong learning. A sufficient percentage of those with cumulative grade point averages of 3.5 and above have better merits to become even more proficient as engineers. © 2018 IEEE.