Isai Amutan Krishnan, Hee Sio Ching, Selvajothi Ramalingam and Elanttamil Maruthai
Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science, Volume 27, Issue 3, September 2019
Keywords: Communication skills, employability skills, Malaysian graduates
Published on: 13 September 2019
Effective communication skills are shown to foster the relationship and collaboration in professional interactions. Particularly in job interviews, communication skills play an important role since it turns out to be of the major criteria of employability ever since the 20th century. This is apparent as many university graduates are unable to secure a job within 3-6 months after graduation due to poor communication skills. This paper aims to investigate the importance of communication skills for employment and by adopting theory of communication, it wishes to address in detail employers expectations. Five fresh graduates from local and private universities and two human resource officers (HR) from one organisation participated in this study. A semi-structured questionnaire was utilized as a tool to collect the data. The findings show that a majority of fresh graduates were weak in communication skills in relation to clarity, completeness, conciseness, and correctness. The inaccurate vocabulary (clarity), incomplete sentences (conciseness), unable to provide detailed answers (completeness), and error in grammar in the utterances and sentences (correctness) were found in the communication skills by these graduates. The study suggests the integration of 4Cs (clarity, conciseness, completeness and correctness) into the current communication skills course modules, facilitation of simulated interviews to assist undergraduates enhance their communication skills prior to attending any actual job interviews.
ISSN 1511-3701
e-ISSN 2231-8542