STUDENT PERCEPTION ON THE IMPORTANCE OF SOFT SKILLS FOR EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

Abstract

Student acquisition on soft skill is becoming more important in today highly global market. Most of the companies now are prefer to hire graduates that possess both skills; hard and soft. In certain cases, some companies are even emphasizing more on soft skills instead of hard skills. For non-technical student, most of the subjects by nature are embedded with soft skills. But for technical students the scenario might be different. The subject offered in their courses mostly focuses on hard skills. This somehow makes students having less awareness on the importance of soft skills. The purpose of this study is to discover student awareness and perception towards the importance of soft skills among engineering student. A total of 150 engineering students from Universiti Kuala Lumpur Malaysia France Institute are chosen as respondent. A questionnaire is used to gather the data. Based on the finding,students are aware, understand and perceived that soft skill is important for education and employment. Some methods recommended to improve students’ soft skill are problem- based learning approach and integration of entrepreneurial element in technical subject.