Issue #2 Creating Understanding

Defining soft skills and competency assessment to all stakeholders.

‘Soft skills competency assessment is an initiative by Ministry of Higher Education to ensure the products of Malaysian universities meet the job requirements and industry demands. Soft skills are implemented in the universities to develop sustainable practices among the graduate and prepare themselves for their profession in future.’

Explaining and making all involved parties understand about the exercise is important to ensure every party can carry their task effectively.

Lecturer may know or not know to assess the students’ competency. Lecturer may recognize the students’ character and capability individually --> especially for achievers and popular; but how about under-achievers and non-popular? Does lecturer notice them?
It goes back to the fair judgment of a lecturer. Some lecturer may give yes, may give no and some may just let it go. It will greatly affect the students’ potential for employment when their certificate shows doubting result.

But how can the lecturer assess the students in their subject (classroom)? Does their syllabus (learning outcomes) indicate certain soft skills being observed or practiced?
Maybe for some subjects such as Business Studies, Communications, Linguistics, Computers and etc., we can see that some skills are taught and acquired directly, but does it enough to cover all the demands by the industry? How about too theoretical subject? How about the demand of incorporating all 7 soft skills in one subject and the observe period is limited?
This goes back to the training for lecturers on designing course syllabus (learning outcomes) to embed or integrate soft skills content in the syllabus. Or, university experts itself design a stand-alone module only for soft skills.

How to make the involved parties understand the importance of this exercise?
Suggested solution and methods: Faculty meeting, seminar, workshop, forums and discussions via UM email/e-learning portals.