Is soft skills formation on university students' educational agendas?

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Author: Nikitina, Larisa; Furuoka, Fumitaka

Abstract:

Soft skills formation at a tertiary level has been an education policy in Malaysia since the year 2006. However, learning outcomes determined by the policymakers or educators may not always match the students' perspectives on education, which can jeopardize the success of the government's initiatives. This qualitative study aimed to explore Malaysian students' expectations of university education and placed a special focus on soft skills formation. Seventy-three students at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) participated in this study. As the findings show, the students' educational aspirations were quite diverse. They included acquiring knowledge of major and minor subjects and having various life experiences. Soft skills formation featured prominently in the students' educational agendas. However, while some skills were mentioned often by the respondents, others were omitted. This may indicate that while the students were familiar with the soft skills discourse they may had been unaware of the whole wide range of soft skills to be acquired in university. Implications of these findings are briefly discussed.

Published abstract.

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Soft skills formation at a tertiary level has been an education policy in Malaysia since the year 2006. However, learning outcomes determined by the policymakers or educators may not always match the students' perspectives on education, which can jeopardize the success of the government's initiatives. This qualitative study aimed to explore Malaysian students' expectations of university education and placed a special focus on soft skills formation. Seventy-three students at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) participated in this study. As the findings show, the ...??[+] Show more

Subjects: Higher education; Students; Skills and knowledge; Research

Keywords: Perception; Tertiary education; Skill needs; Qualitative research; Skill development; Generic skills

Geographic subjects: Malaysia; Asia

Published: [Johor Bahru, Malaysia]: Malaysian Education Deans' Council, [2011]

Access item:
http://medc.com.my/medc/journals/volume%206/c%29%20Soft%20Skills_MEDC_dgn%20abstrak_sent.pdf

VOCEDplus is produced by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), which together with TAFE South Australia, is a UNESCO regional Centre of Excellence in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). VOCEDplus receives funding from the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE).

Source: http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv52678

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