Developing Generic Skills in Classroom Environment: Engineering Students’ Perspective

The two greatest concerns of employers today are finding good workers and training them. The difference between the skills needed on the job and those possessed by applicants, sometimes called the skills-gap, is of real concern to human resource managers and business owners looking to hire competent employees. While employers would prefer to hire people who are trained and ready to go to work, they are usually willing to provide the specialized, jobspecific training necessary for those lacking such skills. Most discussions concerning today’s workforce eventually turn to employability or generic skills. Finding workers who have generic or job readiness skills that help them fit into and remain in the work environment is a real problem. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia has launched its list of graduate attributes in the second quarter of 2004 in which the university believes will enable its graduates to function effectively in a wide range of social and professional contexts. A class of fourty final year undergraduate chemical engineering students were asked to score their competencies on the seven attributes listed by the university and to give suggestions on ways of improving the skills required in the class room environment.