University Education and Employment Challenges: An Evaluation of Fresh Accounting Graduates in Malaysia

Abstract

Higher education and employment are two important life aspects for students as education is a stepping stone for them to enhance their future career opportunities. It is crucial to examine how they perceive the performance of their university in preparing them for the job market, as well as the early employment problems encountered by them. Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted to get inputs from 18 fresh accounting graduates. The study found that the fresh accounting graduates encountered various problems while at work. These early employment problems include: (i) insufficient technical knowledge, (ii) poor communication skills, (iii) not tech-savvy, (iv) difficulty in adapting to workplace, (v) inadequate stress and time management skills, and (vi) a lack of hands-on experience. The study also indicated that many of the interviewees are less satisfied with the performance of their respective universities. The accounting graduates expect their courses to emphasize more on the practicality instead of the theoretical aspects. It is suggested training could be provided to the newly hired accounting graduates to reduce their early employment problems. On the other hand, university should make internship compulsory for accounting students to provide them with real work life experience before they are hired. The findings of this study provide an insight to the education providers to enable them to develop more effective accounting curriculum to produce better-equipped graduates for the job market.

Undergraduate Economics Curriculum and Employability Skills in South Africa

“…Universities are mandated to produce graduates who are highly skilled, employable and remain employed (Heang et al, 2019;Majid et al, 2020;Rowe & Zegwaard, 2017;Shivoro et al, 2018). Therefore, there is a need for a partnership between industries and Higher Education (HE) institutions.…”

“…However, research conducted by Akinwale (2020) revealed that clear policies should be formulated to encourage this partnership. Even in the absence of such policies, higher education is expected to address the matter of employability and all academic courses are supposed to include employability skills (Heang et al, 2019). The focus of higher education should be on producing graduates with flexible skills since many employability skills are universally desirable.…”

“…An attribute can be viewed as a quality or feature regarded as a characteristic or inherent part of a graduate. Employers today do not hire solely based on academic qualifications but also possession of the right soft skills and generic competencies (Heang, et al, 2019). It is important for a graduate to possess flexible skills in order to be hired.…”

“…There has been a paradigm shift from placing much emphasis on high academic achievements to the possession of employability skills. Accordingly, employers today are concerned about finding good employees who not only have basic academic skills but also the abilities of challenging the status quo and the zeal to keep learning (Heang et al, 2019). Therefore, workers must demonstrate that they have the right workplace competencies to enter and compete in today's labour market (Barman & Das, 2020).…”

“…This above sentiment is echoed by Heang et al (2019) who posited that graduates need to be technically prepared and sharpen their employability skills to secure and stay on the job. It is argued that graduates with employability skills do not find it intimidating to embrace and adapt to change.…”