Factors Influencing Graduate Unemployment: English Proficiency

摘要

Four main problems contributed to the issue of graduate unemployment have been identified such as Graduate Attitude, English Proficiency, Professional Certification and Entrepreneurship Skill. The seriousness of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) to combat this issue can be seen when the university has set 2 of its 8 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) targeting graduate employment. The 2 KPIs are; (1) number of graduates who are already employed and (2) being self-employed since leaving the university until their convocation ceremony. At the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UiTM, the Student Affairs Department has taken several initiatives to overcome the issue. Programmes were introduced to strategically cater the 4 problems. For the English proficiency problem, English entry test was introduced and students who attained below satisfactory level were required to attend a Fundamental English Programme organized by the faculty. At the end of the English programme, the students were required to sit for exit test. The effectiveness of the programme and the improvement of the students were recorded. This paper further discusses the implementation and effectiveness of the Fundamental English Programme introduced by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering UiTM to fight graduate unemployment.