This paper reports students' perceptions on the importance of soft skills and perceived level of soft skills competencies, as included in the Industrial Training Soft Skills [ITSS] module, assessed before and after industrial attachment in various companies. The research involves a survey of 353 pre-industrial training students and 359 post-industrial training students using a six-point Likert scale. The population consists of students who had undergone the ITSS module from four polytechnics in the northern region of Malaysia (Kedah, Perlis, Penang). It is a combination of established... [+] Show more
This paper reports students' perceptions on the importance of soft skills and perceived level of soft skills competencies, as included in the Industrial Training Soft Skills [ITSS] module, assessed before and after industrial attachment in various companies. The research involves a survey of 353 pre-industrial training students and 359 post-industrial training students using a six-point Likert scale. The population consists of students who had undergone the ITSS module from four polytechnics in the northern region of Malaysia (Kedah, Perlis, Penang). It is a combination of established and newly-built polytechnics located reasonably close to industrial zones in this region. Moreover, courses offered in these polytechnics such as: engineering, commerce, hospitality and information technology (IT) represent major courses offered by the Malaysian polytechnic education system. The findings of the study suggested that generally students were very positive with the importance of soft skills and their soft skills competency. The teamwork, decision making and time management skills are found to be areas where improvements are needed most. The skills relating to communication (both written and oral), learning and interpersonal skills are identified to be needing improvement as well.
Employers in today's job market seek for employees who have the ability to integrate their technical knowledge with their acquired soft skills. The integration of soft skills into technical training is crucial in the development of the graduates to be competent in jobs that will enable them to be competitive in the world of work. This has to be prioritized by higher education institutions in the ministry. Thus, necessary measures have been introduced to include the training of soft skills into the mainstream curriculum. Mandated by the Ministry of Education (formerly Ministry of Higher Education) to inculcate soft skills in polytechnic students, significant steps have been taken by the polytechnic schools to introduce soft skills, one of them is through the Industrial Training Soft Skills (ITSS) module which was launched in 2006.
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