Towards Industrial Revolution 4.0: Employers' Expectations on Fresh Engineering Graduates

  • Authors

    • Aini Najwa Azmi
    • Yusri Kamin
    • Muhammad Khair Noordin
    • Ahmad Nabil Md. Nasir
    2018-11-30
    https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.28.22593
  • From the pass until now, the industry was affected by technological change and innovation. These paradigms are called industrial revolutions. These revolutions were caused by mechanization (1st industrial revolution), use of electrical energy (2nd industrial revolution) and electronics and automation (3rd industrial revolution). All these industrial revolutions did influence only the production itself, but also the labour market and the educational system as well.  Currently, due to the development of digitalization and robotics, we are facing the next industrial revolution, known as the Industry Revolution 4.0. The emerging technologies have huge effect on the education of people. Only qualified and highly educated employees will be able to control these technologies. The skills needed by employers' in the Industry 4.0 have change due to the changes of the technologies. In this paper, we present the non-technical skills those are demanded by employers' in Industry 4.0 based on recent studies by doing meta-analysis technique. In addition, interviews with five employers have been done to clarify the meta-analysis results. Based on the results, the non-technical skills which are demanded by employers are communication skills especially in English, teamwork skills, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, entrepreneur skills and computer skills. Universities should be exposed their students with much more of interdisciplinary teaching, research, innovation and valuable industrial training to meet current demands of industries.

  • References

    1. [1] M. I. Mahmud, J. Ahmad, W. Marzuki, and W. Ahmad, “Modul Kesediaan Kerjaya Berdasarkan Teori Cognitive Processing (CIP),†no. 3, pp. 59–75, 2016.

      [2] S. A. Rodzalan and M. M. Saat, “The Effects of Industrial Training on Students’ Generic Skills Development,†Procedia - Soc. Behav. Sci., vol. 56, pp. 357–368, 2012.

      [3] A. Benešová and J. Tupa, “Requirements for Education and Qualification of People in Industry 4.0,†Procedia Manuf., vol. 11, no. June, pp. 2195–2202, 2017.

      [4] N. A. Yusof, S. N. F. Mohd Fauzi, N. Zainul Abidin, and H. Awang, “Improving graduates’ employability skills through industrial training : Suggestions from employers,†J. Educ. Pract., vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 23–29, 2013.

      [5] S. A. Osman et al., “The effectiveness of industrial training from the perspective of students of the civil and structure engineering department,†J. Eng. Sci. Technol., vol. 11, no. Special Issue onpendidikankejuruteraandanalambina, pp. 1–12, 2016.

      [6] J. Laguador, “Engineering Students’ Academic and on-the-Job Training Performance Appraisal Analysis,†Int. J. e-Education, e-Business, e-Management e-Learning, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 4–8, 2013.

      [7] N. A. Jamil, S. M. Shariff, and Z. Abu, “Students’ Practicum Performance of Industrial Internship Program,†Procedia - Soc. Behav. Sci., vol. 90, pp. 513–521, 2013.

      [8] F. A. Phang, K. M. Yusof, M. M. Saat, and N. M. Yusof, “Perceptions of engineering students on industrial training in Malaysia,†no. JULY, pp. 1–6, 2014.

      [9] A. Ayob, S. A. Osman, M. Z. Omar, N. Jamaluddin, N. T. Kofli, and S. Johar, “Industrial Training as Gateway to Engineering Career: Experience Sharing,†Procedia - Soc. Behav. Sci., vol. 102, no. Ifee 2012, pp. 48–54, 2013.

      [10] C. Bhurtun, I. Jahmeerbacus, K. Oolun, and A. Feliachi, “Short-term practical training for electrical engineering undergraduates,†IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 109–113, 1999.

      [11] S. Renganathan, Z. Ambri, B. Abdul, and C. S. Li, “Students ’ perception of industrial internship programme,†2013.

      [12] S. Pillai, M. H. Khan, I. Syahirah, and S. Raphael, “Enhancing employability through industrial training in the Malaysian context,†pp. 187–204, 2012.

      [13] K. M. T. Collins, A. J. Onwuegbuzie, and Q. G. Jiao, “A Mixed Methods Investigation of Mixed Methods Sampling Designs in Social and Health Science Research,†J. Mix. Methods Res., 2007.

      [14] J. Creswell, “Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches,†Res. Des., pp. 1–26, 2013.

      [15] N. Suhairom, A. H. Musta’amal, N. F. M. Amin, and N. K. A. Johari, “The Development of Competency Model and Instrument for Competency Measurement: The Research Methods,†Procedia - Soc. Behav. Sci., vol. 152, pp. 1300–1308, 2014.

      [16] A. et al Norida, “Model of Self-Esteem, Job-Search Intensity and Career Decision-Making Self-Effi cacy for Undergraduate Students,†in International Conference on Science , Technology and Social Sciences, 2014, pp. 256–265.

      [17] M. K. Noordin, “Project-Based Learning (PjBL) for non-Technical Skills,†2014.

      [18] M. S. Rasul, R. A. Rose, and A. N. Mansor, “Employability skills indicator as perceived by manufacturing employers,†Asian Soc. Sci., vol. 9, no. 8, pp. 42–46, 2013.

      [19] Z. Hanapi, M. S. Nordin, and A. Khamis, “Challenges Faced by Engineering Lecturers in Integrating Technical and Employability Skills in the Curriculum: A Case Study in Community College, Malaysia,†Int. J. Soc. Sci. Humanit., vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 483–486, 2015.

      [20] A. Zaharim, Y. M. Yusoff, M. Z. Omar, and H. Basri, “Employability Skills Framework for Engineering Graduate in Malaysia,†8th WSEAS Int. Conf. Educ. Educ. Technol., pp. 264–272, 2010.

      [21] S. Nilsson, “Enhancing individual employability : the perspective of engineering graduates,†2010.

      [22] M. S. Rasul, R. A. A. Rauf, and A. R. M. Nor, “Future Employability Skills Sets for Manufacturing Industries,†Int. Educ. Stud., vol. 7, no. 10, pp. 138–144, 2014.

      [23] M. N. Ab Rahman, M. Z. Omar, N. T. Kofli, K. Mat, S. A. Osman, and Z. M. Darus, “Assessment of engineering students perception after industrial training placement,†Eur. J. Soc. Sci., vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 420–431, 2009.

      [24] J. Tapper *, “Student perceptions of how critical thinking is embedded in a degree program,†High. Educ. Res. Dev., vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 199–222, 2004.

      [25] M. Y. Husain, M. S. Rasul, R. Mustapha, S. A. Malik, R. Amnah, and A. Rauf, “Jurnal Teknologi Full paper Tahap Kemahiran Employability Pelajar Kejuruteraan dari Perspektif,†vol. 1, pp. 31–39, 2013.

      [26] . Ramlee Mustapha et al., “K-Economy and Globalisation-Are our student ready?,†J. Pers. Pelajar, vol. 11, no. June, pp. 1–23, 2008.

      [27] M. S. Rasul, R. A. Abd Rauf, A. N. Mansor, and A. P. Puvanasvaran, “Employability skills assessment tool development,†Int. Educ. Stud., vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 43–56, 2012.

      [28] A. Kucel, P. Róbert, M. Buil, and N. Masferrer, “Entrepreneurial Skills and Education-Job Matching of Higher Education Graduates,†Eur. J. Educ., vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 73–89, 2016.

      [29] R. Alias, M. I. Mohd Hamzah, and N. Yahya, “Generic skill requirements: Between employer’s aspiration and the need of professional employees,†J. Pengur., vol. 37, pp. 105–114, 2013.

      [30] M. S. Rasul, Y. Ismail, N. Ismail, M. R. Rajuddin, R. Amnah, and A. Rauf, “Peranan Institusi Pendidikan Teknikal Dalam Pemupukan Kemahiran ‘ Employability ’ Pelajar,†J. Teknol., vol. 50, no. E, pp. 113–127, 2009.

      [31] M. S. Rasul, R. Amnah, A. Rauf, B. Sulong, and A. N. Mansor, “Kepentingan Kemahiran Kebolehdapatan Kerja Kepada Bidang Teknikal,†J. Teknol., vol. 59, no. 1963, pp. 93–101, 2012.

      [32] H. L. Rahim and N. F. Mohd Lajin, “Social Entrepreneurship and Graduate Employability,†Int. Acad. Res. J. Soc. Sci., vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 33–40, 2015.

      [33] M. Hussain, C. S. Kumar, and G. Saritha, “Role of the Teacher of English : Enhancing Employability Skills to Engineering Students,†vol. 4, no. 12, pp. 20–21, 2017.

      [34] A. Zaharim, M. Z. Omar, H. Basri, F. Liza, and M. Isa, “A Gap Study between Employers ’ Perception and Expectation of Engineering Graduates in Malaysia,†WSEAS Trans. Adv. Eng. Educ., vol. 6, no. 11, pp. 409–419, 2009.

      [35] D. Finch, L. Hamilton, R. Baldwin, and M. Zehner, “An Exploratory Study of Factors Affecting Undergraduate Employability,†Educ. + Train., vol. 55, no. 7, pp. 681–704, 2013.

      [36] T. O. Oresanya, O. S. Omodewu, T. T. Kolade, and A. O. Fashedemi, “Vocational Education and Employability : The Nigerian Situation,†vol. 5, no. 2009, pp. 2013–2015, 2014.

      [37] O. A. A. Oluwatobi, C. Ayedun, O. Ajibola, O. Iroham, “EMPLOYERS PERSPECTIVE OF THE EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS-GAP IN REAL ESTATE EDUCATION IN NIGERIA,†in 9th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, 2017, pp. 1–10.

      [38] N. Wilton, “Employability is in the eye of the beholder Employer decision-making in the recruitment of work placement students,†High. Educ. Ski. Work. Learn., vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 242–255, 2014.

      [39] G. VK, “Technical and Non-Technical Education and the Employability of Engineering Graduates : An Indian Case Study Technical and non-technical education and the employability of engineering,†no. July, pp. 130–144, 2016.

      [40] A. Wall et al., “Graduate attributes and employability skills: graduates’ perspectives on employers’ expectations in Oman A,†2017.

      [41] Y. M. Yusoff, M. Z. Omar, a Zaharim, a Mohamed, N. Muhamad, and R. Mustapha, “Enhancing Employability Skills through Industrial Training Programme,†Latest Trends Eng. Educ., no. May 2016, pp. 398–403, 2010.

  • Downloads

  • How to Cite

    Azmi, A. N., Kamin, Y., Noordin, M. K., & Nasir, A. N. M. (2018). Towards Industrial Revolution 4.0: Employers’ Expectations on Fresh Engineering Graduates. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(4.28), 267-272. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.28.22593