Non-Technical Skills Among Engineering Graduates: The Validation Process of Interview Protocol Instruments

Abstract

Electrical and Electronics engineering sector is an important contributor in Malaysia's economy as it is one of the twelve National Key Economic Area (NKEA) in the country's Economic Transformation Program (ETP). There are approximate 1,900 active Electrical and Electronics companies which provide over 35,000 engineers and manager positions. As universities received many complaints regarding to capability of engineering graduates especially in their non-technical skills which resulted non-industry-ready engineers. Less exposures to industrial training or also known as internship is one of the major reasons of the problems that can be fixed by organizing an intensive industrial training program for engineering students. In this paper, several processes of the instruments development and validation are discussed. To conduct an interview protocol, the instrument should be tested for its validity and trustworthiness. After these two processes are done, the instruments are ready to be used in the field study.