Malaysian Students | Communication and Problem Solving

Running head:
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
Error! Use the Home tab to apply Heading 1 to the text that you want to appear
here.Chapter 1
Introduction
In this era of globalization, there exists high competition between the organizations in order to
recruit as well as retain skilled and experienced employees. Considering the fact that in a single
industry, the number of established organization is growing with time, the management of every
organization are getting highly dependent on employees for long term growth and potential.
Possessing skilled employees in the workplace not only ensure enhance of quality and
productivity but also ensure competitive advantage over rivals in the market. Considering the
fact that majority of the organizations are searching for skilled employees, the demand of
unskilled employees in the market is almost nil. The Malaysian employers are found to be
concerned about the shortage of local skilled talents for serving the transformation of digital
technology (Machart, 2017). The purpose of this essay is to analyze the gap between knowledge
and technical skills amongst the Malaysian students. The thesis of this essay is that Malaysian
students lack effective knowledge of writing as well as relevant skills that are highly required by
a job candidate to get hired by the employers as well as excel in the real world. The essay will
include evidence of the gap of knowledge of writing and relevant technical skills that makes then
unfit for being recruited. Along with this, the paper will also include specific factors for the gap.
Additionally, suggestions on how to equip Malaysian students with the right knowledge and
skills will also be included in ths essay.
Discussion
Malaysian students lack both communication and problem solving skills. According to
researcher, communication is considered to be a highly crucial factor that enables an
organization to work in an efficient way ad to be productive, employers are found to spend a
huge amount of time in order to create trust amongst the employees which in turn results in

2
Error! Use the Home tab to apply Heading 1 to the text that you want to appear
here.Chapter 1
enhancement of productivity, overall morale as well as performance of the organization.
According to Hock-Eam and Yeok (2017), 3.2 percent of the Malaysian companies indicated that
graduates lacked skills in problem solving as well as communication skills. Majority of the
Malaysian students are found to have lack of fluency in spoken English. According to
researchers, it is highly crucial for each and every aspiring professional to enhancetheir spoken
English skill as it possess the potentially to develop an impressive personality along with
enhancingtheircareer aspects and communication with the consumers. Lack of emphasize on
learning English in their academic career is considered to be one of the chief reasons behind lack
of effective spoken English skills. Majority of the schools in Malaysia has been found to focus
more on local languages instead of English. Even in English medium schools, students and
teachers are found to be communicating in local languages. Thus lack of focus o the English
language has imposed adverse impact on both verbal and written English communication of the
graduates in Malyasia. Considering the fact that majority of the Malaysian companies and all of
the international organization conduct interview session in English, after completing graduation
students are getting disappointed as well as shocked hen they see majority of their job interview
are getting connected in the English language.
According to researchers, majority of the jobs that are available in the Malaysian market requires
verbal or written communication of the employees with the clients. Speciallywhenit comes to the
task of sales representatives, effective communication in English language is highly crucial
since, the employees needs to convince the clients that their product or serviceis superior than
any other product available in the market. Lack of effective skill in speaking or writing in
English is making it difficult of the graduates to acquire job in Malaysia. When it comes to the

3
Error! Use the Home tab to apply Heading 1 to the text that you want to appear
here.Chapter 1
organizations located abroad, it is getting more difficult for the students to pass the interview
session an get employed abroad (Azmi et al., 2018).
One of the major example of this situation is lack of job opportunities faced by the Bumiputera
students. While only 13 percent of the total number of organizations in Malaysia hires students
who can speak in Vernacular language, more than 85 percent organization present in the nation
are outsourcing workforce at a higher cost but are showing high reluctant to recruit Bumipuetra
students who lacks effective written and spoken English skills.
For instance, one of the Malaysian employee who possessed effective skills to speak in English
languages shared in an interview that he was been told by one of his college who suffered
difficulties while communicating with foreign clients that he should be communicating in
English and instead should consider Malaysian language for communication since they are in
Malaysia and not in England (Alam & Hoque 2010). Thus it can be clarity understood that the
stereotypical mentality of the residents as well as lack of incorporation of English as a major
language to focus on in schools is resulting lack of effective communication skills in Malaysian
students.
Along with lack of effective communication skills, another reason behind rejection of the
Malaysian organizations to recruit graduates is lack of effective technical skills. The term
technical skis can be defined as the ability as well as knowledge that is needed by an employee to
perform specific tasks. In today’s fast spaced world, recruiters looks for employees who possess
the skills to understand their job roles and form the very first day help the company to achieve its
goals. Some major examples of technical skills includes knowledge of mechanical equipments
programming languages and other tools that are required by the employees to successfully play
their job role. According to Maarof and Muratb (2013), while majority of the graduates who are

4
Error! Use the Home tab to apply Heading 1 to the text that you want to appear
here.Chapter 1
applying for jobs excess in academic qualification, they are found to lack the knowledge of what
needs to be done on the field. This is pointed out to be the chef reason behind low understanding
of work which in turn impose negative impact on their performance as well as productivity of the
organization. Lack of practical skills makes it difficult for the students of Malaysia to develop
understanding of the work within a limited period of time. According to Huwari and Aziz
(2011), due to lack of effective knowledge associated with market, a good number of the
students are found to make unrealistic demands in regard totheirinitial salary and often lacks
compromising skills in their working hours, which in turn makes the Malaysian students highly
unattractive to be potential employees.
Malaysian employers in order to deal with the high competition in both local as well as global
market looks for fresh employees who possess the skills of critical thinking and breadth of
knowledge which comes from understanding of the task and reasoning behind it. According to
Ruzaimi Mat Rani, he chief executive of Drawzania.com, majority of the students eh have
graduated from Malaysian universities are not ready for the challenges that needs to faced and
resolved in the workplace. The statement was made based on the experience he have gathered
while working with the graduates who visited his workshop on visualization communication skill
(FVCS), creativity and innovation in organization. in the mentioned workshop, while the
participants were more than 3000, less than 1 percent of the participants were found to be able to
draw visualization skills (Ahmad et al., 2019). While conducting the workshop, he notices that
majority of the graduates lacks the ability to visualize even their desires and this can be pointed
out to be chief reasons that hinder their ability to put the massage across. According to
researchers, the chef reason behind this issue is lack of basic cognitive skills, attention, memory

5
Error! Use the Home tab to apply Heading 1 to the text that you want to appear
here.Chapter 1
as well as logical reasoning. These skills majority develops within an individual during their
academic carrier and the same helps the individuals to develop their technical skills.
It has also bee found that majority of the Malaysian student even lacks the idea of their potential
job role while opting for an interview. Employers while recruiting candidates expects that he or
she is at least familiar with and understand the requirement s of the organization where he or she
will be joining. Thisclearly signifies lack of their interest and skill to conduct internet browsing
about the organization they are opting for.
Zainuddin et al. (2019) have pointed out along with language and technical skills, it has been
found that majority of theemployees are found to be lacking soft skills which are highly crucial
for n employee to possess. The term soft skill refers to intangible skills that helps an employee
to maintain the work friendly environment of the workplace, effectively satisfy the consumers
and thus enhances the quality and productivity of the workplace. Soft skills are considered to b
highly crucial for building relationships gaining visibility and for creating more opportunity for
advancement The chief soft skills that Malaysian student are found to lacking except
communication skills includes creativity and critical thinking skills. Considering the fat that
innovation is considered to be the most effective asset that helps an organization to demonstrate
creativity, lack of effective creative skills makes the Malaysian employees ineffective to ensure
effective innovatation.
Another major soft skills that are expected by the employers fro the Malaysian students includes
team playing and critical thinking. As being discussed earlier, majority of the Malaysian students
are found to lack effective knowledge that helps them to develop an in-depth critical thinking.
Along with this lack of experience and ignorance also hinders their ability to demonstrate their
ability to work as a team and resolve conflict (Hossain et al. 2018).

6
Error! Use the Home tab to apply Heading 1 to the text that you want to appear
here.Chapter 1
Malaysian students are not provided with effective opportunities to develop their technical and
writing skills by the universities which in turn decrease their ability to get employed. The QS
Global Skills Gap in the 21st Century report suggests that there are “sizable and consistent
disparities” between employer expectations and student skills based on insights provided by
11,000 employers and 16,000 students across the world. It has been found that half of the
educators who teach English in the primary section in Malaysia possess poor English skills.
According to researchers , the chief reasons behind this is lack of motivation, environment since
the students are not required to pass the English subject in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia
examination. In Malaysian educational system (Yoong, Don & Foroutan, 2017), English is
considered as a secondary educational system and thus learning English is not compulsory for
the students. However, more than 75 percent of the job interviews are taken in English in the
nation. Not only this, considering the fact majority of the consumers of the private organizations
of Malaysia are from foreign countries, communication in English is considered highly vital in
order to ensure effective job performance.
Another reason behind this issue includes misidentification of the skills by the Malaysian
students. According to Yoke et al. (2018), Malaysian students misidentify the importance of key
employment skills. While as per the students, creativity, organizational and problem solving
skills are the three major skills that are expected by the employers from then, as per the
employers both written and spoken communication skills along with effective technical skills are
two major skills that is needed. According to Kamaliah et al. (2018) , it has been found that
Malaysian universities are showing incapability to provide the students with a good number of
skills that is needed by them in order to get employed both inside and outside the country. Lack

7
Error! Use the Home tab to apply Heading 1 to the text that you want to appear
here.Chapter 1
of focus on soft skills thatincludes communication skills, both written as well as oral, problem
solving skills, conflict management skills needs to be focused on. Along with this, while the
universities are chiefly focusing on providing the student with theoretical knowledge, lack of
provision of hard skills like technical knowledge is highly evident. According to Azmi et al..
(2018), Malaysian students are unaware, in specific in terms of employability attributes of
personality management, connectivity and explorations. Thus it can be said that the Malaysian
students, due to lack of knowledge of what exactly is wanted from them by the employers are
highly over confident on their employability attributes. This overconfidence could lead to a
prolonged unemployment problem in students when they enter into graduate labor market. It also
offers a partial on why the poor generic skills are found consistently to be a crucial determinant
of graduate unemployment.
In order to deal with this issue, effective steps need to be taken by the Malaysian government on
an emergency basis. According to researchers, the tertiary institutions possess the potential to
play multiple roles by preparing undergraduates for the future. It is highly crucial to prepare the
students of Malaysia on the basis of the requirements of the industry.
In order to develop their communication skills, it is highly crucial to modify the educational
system. English as a academic subject needs to be given high importance. It should be made a
compulsory subject to be taught in school and it should be made mandatory for students to score
at least 50 percent in English in order to get promoted to the next class.
The quality of teaching English also needs to focused on. The management of the schools should
ensure that the English teachers recruited possess high command on the subject. Effective
training to teach English should be provided to the educators. The standard of English teaching
in Malaysia should match the global standard. The number of English medium school should be

8
Error! Use the Home tab to apply Heading 1 to the text that you want to appear
here.Chapter 1
increased and students must be ensured to get admitted into a compulsory spoken English class
in case they lack effective verbal communication in English.
While there are some major steps that needs to taken to develop their written and verbal
communication skill in English, in order to develop their soft skills and technical skills, students
should be provided with student centered environment where they will be provided with the
opportunity to interact with industry partners and focus in their assignments on projects along
with having access to advanced laboratories as well as workshops with effective tools for
developing their technical and soft skills,, communicating with the industrial partners will
provide them with an in-depth understanding of the needs of the employers and thus they will
able to eradicate their misidentification (Azmi, Hashim & Yusoff, 2018).. Along with this, it
should also be ensured by both the local as well as federal government that students are getting
exposure to the real life work environment so that their transition in to the work life can be
seamless with the help of programs like Employment Readiness, Enrichment and Aspiring Club
Leadership and Personal Professional Development.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that Malaysian students indeed are currently
unfit for getting employed due to lack of effective written and verbal communication skills as
well as lack of technical knowledge. Various factors like lack of priority given to the English
language by the government as well as ineffective teaching skills of the teachers are responsible
for the issue. Along with communication, Malaysian students are also unaware of the technical
skills needed by them in order to obtain effective job opportunities. However, it can be pointed
out that by implanting the above discussed strategies in near future.

9
Error! Use the Home tab to apply Heading 1 to the text that you want to appear
here.Chapter 1
Reference list
Ahmad Afip, L., Hamid, M. O., & Renshaw, P. (2019). Common European framework of
reference for languages (CEFR): insights into global policy borrowing in Malaysian
higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 17(3), 378-393.
Alam, G. M., & Hoque, K. E. (2010). Who gains from “Brain and Body Drain” Business-
Developing/developed world or individuals: A comparative study between skilled and
semi/unskilled emigrants. Afr. J. Bus. Manage, 4(4), 534-548.
Azmi, I. A. G., Hashim, R. C., & Yusoff, Y. M. (2018). The employability skills of Malaysian
university students. International Journal of Modern Trends in Social Sciences, 1(3), 1-
14.
Azmi, I. A. G., Hashim, R. C., & Yusoff, Y. M. (2018). The employability skills of Malaysian
university students. International Journal of Modern Trends in Social Sciences, 1(3), 1-
14.
Azmi, I. A. G., Jani, R., Hashim, R. C., & Yusoff, Y. M. (2018). THE EXTENT OF WORK
READINESS AMONG MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: AN EMPIRICAL
STUDY ON EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS. TOURISM, TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS
MANAGEMENT (ICTTBM 2018), 57.
Hock-Eam, L. I. M., & Yeok, S. G. (2017). Are the Malaysian students “unskilled” and
“unaware”. Journal of Advanced Research in Social Sciences and Humanities, 2(1), 27-
34.

10
Error! Use the Home tab to apply Heading 1 to the text that you want to appear
here.Chapter 1
Hossain, M. I., Yagamaran, K. S., Afrin, T., Limon, N., Nasiruzzaman, M., & Karim, A. M.
(2018). Factors Influencing Unemployment among Fresh Graduates: A Case Study in
Klang Valley, Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business &
Social Sciences, 8, 1494-1507.
Huwari, I. F., & Aziz, N. H. A. (2011). Writing apprehension in English among Jordanian
postgraduate students at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). Academic Research
International, 1(2), 190.
Kamaliah, S., Roslan, S., Bakar, A. R., & Ghiami, Z. (2018). The effect of supervised work
experience on the acquisition of employability skills among Malaysian students. Higher
Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning.
Maarof, N., & Murat, M. (2013). Writing strategies used by ESL upper secondary school
students. International Education Studies, 6(4), 47-55.
Machart, R. (2017). The implementation of industrial training in tertiary education in Malaysia:
Objectives, realisations and outputs in the case of foreign language students.
International Review of Education, 63(1), 103-122.
Yoke, S. K., Zainon, S., Rajendran, C. B., & Kamaludin, P. N. H. (2018). Business Graduate
Language Skills for Future Employment: A Case Study. Global Business and
Management Research, 10(3), 455.
Yoong, D., Don, Z. M., & Foroutan, M. (2017). Prescribing roles in the employability of
Malaysian graduates. Journal of Education and Work, 30(4), 432-444.

11
Error! Use the Home tab to apply Heading 1 to the text that you want to appear
here.Chapter 1
Zainuddin, S. Z. B., Pillai, S., Dumanig, F. P., & Phillip, A. (2019). English language and
graduate employability. Education+ Training.