Graduates’ Employability Skills Based on Current Job Demand through Electronic Advertisement

In Malaysia, there is a profusion of evidence of high graduate unemployment since many graduates
are found lacking of what are needed to acquire and to maintain their jobs. In this paper, graduate
employability skills were analyzed based on four major criteria: Qualification, academic score,
experience and specific soft skills. The data and information used were extracted from 300 online job
advertisements accessed via electronic databases at http://www.JobStreet.com.my from January to
March 2011. A simple checklist form was developed to quantify the information from ads into
quantitative data that was later keyed in the Statistical Package for Social Science for descriptive
analyses. Based on the data, it was concluded that graduates with bachelor degrees were more likely
to be employable due to high demand. It was also found that academic excellence based on CGPA
was not the utmost factor for graduate employability. However, since less than one-third ads were free
from work experiences requirement, fresh graduates only secured a little chance to be recruited.
Another factor that limited graduates employability was high demand of specific soft skills requested
by employers, among which were graduates with high quality of communication/interpersonal skills,
foreign language proficiency, ICT/technical skills, high spirit of teamwork and specific personal
attributes. Results concluded that graduate unemployment rate will continue to increase unless the
Higher Education Institution (HEI) and the graduates are prepared to sharpen their soft skills
according to market niche. It is suggested that the HEI work more closely with industries, professional
bodies and society through the establishment of university-industry link cooperation that will become a
catalyst for soft skills enhancement.