The industrial training program is part of the academic curriculum at the tertiary level. It plays an important role in providing students with the exposure to a real working environment in the industry. Through this program, the higher education institutions (HEI) could identify the gaps in the curriculum based on the requirements from the industry. In addition, the feedback from the industry will help the HEI to equip students with relevant skills according to the demands from the industry. Indirectly, it can help to address the issue of unemployed graduates of which the number seems to increase from time to time. Therefore, this study aims to obtain the feedback from the employers out there in order to determine the most preferred criteria in selecting students for the industrial training placement by using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) approach. The findings, through the development of house of quality based on the QFD approach, show that communication skills and students’ participation in sports and cocurricular activities at their university are the most preferred selection criteria. Therefore, the QFD approach can be used to translate the employers’ feedback in improving the marketability of the students in the industry.
Human capital is an important asset in the process of developing a country. Countries with high-skilled human capital are able to generate economic activities to a more dynamic par with developed countries like the United States or Japan. Therefore, various approaches have been initiated, especially in the higher education system, in order to produce human capital with high skills and competency by requiring students to undergo the industrial training program before being awarded with certificates, diplomas, or degrees.
The industrial training program exposes students to the real working environment and enables them to apply the theoretical and practical knowledge that they have learned by performing the tasks assigned by their current organization [
The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) is one of the higher education institutions providing opportunities for their students to be exposed to the real work situations. Various courses and programs have been taught in the university as to improve students’ skills and knowledge and applying during their works or during their industrial training. However, the requirements and expectations of the industry are constantly changing as the Malaysia’s economics and industries keep changing. Therefore, it is an obligation to the university to assess the ability of their students, whether they meet the demands of the industry, and what criteria and skills that the industry needs from UKM graduate students. For that reason, the feedback from the employers regarding the selection of students to join their organization is very important to assist the university in preparing and providing a better service in the future.
In an effort to improve and enhance the quality of service of School of Mathematical Sciences (PPSM), Faculty of Science and Technology, UKM, in preparing graduates who are skilled and competent to the industry, the survey was conducted to get feedbacks from employers to assess the effectiveness of the courses offered and the skills acquired by PPSM students. Thus, with the approach of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) analysis, the absolute weights for technical requirement (outcomes of the program) based on the development of house of quality from the employer’s perspective were studied and investigated for identifying the program learning outcomes (HPP) and program outcomes (OP) which need to be emphasized or improvement in meeting current industry needs. This allows the PPSM, FST, and UKM to improve the existing programs so that graduates are more competitive and more marketable, thereby reducing the number of graduates who are unemployed.
For the final year students of PPSM, FST of session 2010/2011, the industrial training program is a compulsory since it was stopped and was not compulsory to the students on last 1995 session. Therefore, the feedback from the industries and the students is needed and important as to find out the effect of the IT on the students. The most important is to find out the marketability of the PPSM students to be hired by the industries after the IT program. There were various studies on the industrial training that have been done in some higher institutions, namely, by Goi and Lau [
Human capital that has been equipped with skills such as communication skills, ability to work in teams, ability to think creatively, and ability to make decisions and has both good leadership skills and academic excellence will be more competitive in the industry. According to Madar et al. [
In this study, the feedback from the employers and the students who undergo the IT is needed to determine the effectiveness and the marketability of the PPSM student in getting a job. This investigation on the IT program is important and will be beneficial to the PPSM as it will enhance the effectiveness of the IT program and beneficial to the students as it will increase the marketability of the students in finding the jobs as it was conducted during the final year after students have completed all the units needed before finishing their study and graduated, compared to before which was on the second year of study.
The concept of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) has been introduced by Akao and Katsuyo in 1966 at Matsushita Electric. The QFD can be used in various sectors such as services, automotive, hospitality, and manufacturing. Nevertheless, the first application was in the manufacturing sector by Toyota. Having proven its effectiveness by Toyota, the quality practitioners have expanded the use of QFD in the service sector [
Kauffmann et al. [
Quinn et al. [
The QFD approach also requires the development of house of quality in integrating customers’ feedback for the technical requirements of the organization and analyzing problems or enhancements that should be given priority in improving the quality of their services. Akao et al. [
A survey has been conducted on the industries which are involved in the student’s industrial training program of PPSM students to investigate the marketability of the PPSM students. The questionnaires that can be referred to in the Appendix were distributed to the employers during the assessment visit by the PPSM supervisor. The survey on the employers involved 136 respondents of which 29 were from government sectors, 77 were from private sectors, 27 were from government agencies, and 3 from other sectors. There were 5 parts in the employer questionnaires to be answered. In order to determine the feedback from the employers regarding their selection of students who undergo industrial training at their agencies, Likert’s scale ranging from 1 to 5 was also used to measure. The scale range of 1 represents very unimportant while 5 represents very important. A descriptive analysis was done to look at respondents’ profiles based on demographic factors while the hypothesis testing was done to compare the criteria of selection of industrial training students. The hypothesis that was tested is as follows: there is no difference between criteria of selection of industrial training students from the employers feedback.
The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to get the conclusions on the hypothesis stated above.
In this section, we propose an assessment of PPSM student’s skill based on the program and courses that they have taken during their studies in PPSM, FST, and UKM via QFD methodology. The voice of employers in agencies was taken as their feedback on how they select the PPSM students to join their agencies to undergo industrial training.
The QFD approach requires the development of house of quality in connecting the customers’ voice with the specified products or services, technical requirements, process of planning control, and manufacturing operations [
House of quality.
Therefore, in this study, the employers are the external customers of the School of Mathematical Sciences (PPSM). The employers’ feedback of satisfaction on student’s skills and abilities is categorized according to the domain: the affective domain, psychomotor domain, cognitive domain, and psychomotor and cognitive domain, based on course learning outcomes of STQS3886 (Industrial Training course) by referring to Malaysian Qualification Agency as guidelines to good practices in assessment to students in HEI as shown in Table
Employers’ feedback on the satisfaction level of student skills.
Domain | Employer feedback | |
---|---|---|
Cognitive | D4 | Willingness to accept responsibility |
D5 | Interest in the task/project given | |
D6 | Commitment to the tasks/projects assigned | |
D13 | Ability to solve problems | |
D15 | Ability to analyze problems | |
D19 | Ability to make decisions | |
D21 | Ability to apply knowledge and skills learnt at UKM | |
|
||
Psychomotor | D1 | Timely |
D9 | Compliance with procedures and rules | |
D10 | Appropriate attire | |
D11 | Ability to understand instructions from the supervisor/employer | |
|
||
Affective | D2 | Ability to perform tasks/projects |
D7 | Good relationships with other employees in the organization | |
D12 | Ability to work in a team | |
D14 | Leadership skills | |
D18 | Ability to plan and carry out the tasks given | |
|
||
Psychomotor and cognitive | D3 | Having the initiative/willingness to learn |
D8 | Capability of communication/information delivery | |
D16 | Ability to describe the results of the analysis/project | |
D17 | Ability to think creatively | |
D20 | Ability to express opinions related to the job | |
D22 | Ability to use the latest technology |
In addition, the technical requirements describe the model of “how” the organization responds to “what” the customer needs for a certain product or service. The selection criteria of industrial training students are the technical requirements which describe the criteria required by employers in selecting students to undergo the training at their organizations based on the previous research.
The relationship matrix (
Besides that, the point of services/sales (
The correlation matrix is a correlation or “roof” of the house of quality. This “roof” can be seen in Figure
Normally, information found in the technical target is our priority and benchmark for criteria of selection. Therefore, the indicator of the criteria of selection which has a high absolute weight value should be given a priority in the process of maintaining the services and meeting the employees’ needs.
Based on the survey conducted, there were 149 respondents among the students, of which 45.6% were from Statistics program, 44.3% were from Mathematics program, and 10.1% were from Actuarial Science program. Among them, 24.2% were males and 71.1% were females. In terms of organizational sectors which provided a workplace to the students, there were 26.8% from financial sector, followed by 18.8% from service sector, and 11.4% were from other sectors as stated in Table
Employers who provided their feedback as shown in Table
Profiles of respondents.
Profiles of employers | Number | % |
---|---|---|
Type of organization | ||
Government | 29 | 21.3 |
Private | 77 | 56.6 |
Government agency | 27 | 19.9 |
Others | 3 | 2.2 |
Organization sectors | ||
Finance | 37 | 27.2 |
Manufacturing | 13 | 9.6 |
Services | 24 | 17.6 |
Industry | 4 | 2.9 |
Property development and construction | 2 | 1.5 |
Education | 14 | 10.3 |
Consultation | 5 | 3.7 |
Transportation | 1 | 0.7 |
Agriculture and food | 1 | 0.7 |
Defence and security | 1 | 0.7 |
Communication and IT | 8 | 5.9 |
Others | 25 | 18.4 |
Then, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test whether there are significant differences between the criteria of selection. Any criteria which give a
ANOVA results for employers’ selection criteria of industrial training students.
Employer’s selection criteria of students’ LI | Mean |
|
|
|
---|---|---|---|---|
B4 | Communication skills | 4.5 | 5.54 | 0.00 |
B2 | Mastery in English language | 4.29 | 3.98 | 0.01 |
B1 | Mastery in Malay language | 4.13 | 20.81 | 0 |
B7 | Academic qualifications | 4.07 | 2.15 | 0.09 |
B9 | Company/organization policy | 4.02 | 0.63 | 0.59 |
B8 | A convincing resume | 3.95 | 0.98 | 0.40 |
B6 | Duration of LI | 3.82 | 2.83 | 0.04 |
B10 | Amount of students’ intake for LI for a particular period | 3.73 | 0.47 | 0.71 |
B11 | Students’ involvement in extracurricular activities in university | 3.51 | 1.64 | 0.18 |
B12 | Students’ involvement in sport activities | 3.22 | 2.22 | 0.09 |
B3 | Ability to master other languages | 3.02 | 1.63 | 0.19 |
B5 | Working experience | 2.88 | 0.38 | 0.77 |
Criteria that should be given priority.
Preferred selection criteria | |
---|---|
B4 | Communication skills |
B12 | Participation in sports activities |
B11 | Participation cocurricular activities |
B5 | Working experience |
B2 | Mastery in English language |
The relationships between the employers’ satisfaction level on student skills and each selection criteria were categorized by specific symbols depending on correlation and while the relationships in the “roof” of house of quality were determined also based on the correlation. The planning matrix values were produced by (
House of quality of employers’ selection criteria.
From the development of house of quality, the most preferred selection criteria by employers can be determined based on the high absolute weight value as in the technical target of house of quality. However, the high absolute weight value that should be given priority cannot be determined by its value, because the absolute weight value depends on the scale that has been used in obtaining feedback from the employers and the scale of the relationship in the relationship matrix.
The greater the interval is, the higher the scale will be used in absolute weight value for the technical requirements. Therefore, this study uses a scale of 1–5 in which 1 represents “very dissatisfied” and 5 represents “very satisfied” for the preferred criteria being used. To evaluate the relationship in the relationship matrix, the scale of 0, 3, and 9 was used in which the scale of 9 refers to significant at 0.01 level, 3 refers to significant at 0.05 level, and 0 refers to not significant.
Based on the findings from the house of quality as shown in Figure
Based on the results obtained, the School of Mathematical Sciences, UKM, would also have a role in providing their students with skills and criteria as required by the industries. The courses offered should include the skills needed by students such as communication skills. Students should be exposed to a variety of tasks or skills that enable students to practice their communication skills, for example, through presentations of student assignment, visits to industry for an interview, which directly emphasizes and strengths their English language. Besides that, encouraging students to actively participate in cocurricular activities and sports is a must. All the necessary criteria should also be taken into account by the university in order to prepare all their graduates that can fulfill the industries demand.
This QFD method which was applied in this study assessed the customer satisfaction, the industries (customer) on the UKM students performance during their industrial training. The criteria of selection that we get are the voice of customer (employers) that should be translated by the UKM to produce graduates that have skills as what industries demand. This is important to enhance the marketability of the UKM students.
This study has applied QFD approach in translating the employer’s voice in the industrial training program through the formation of house of quality. The program is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs or courses offered by the university. Thus, through the formation of the house of quality, the most preferred selection criteria from the house of quality enable PPSM to identify the necessary skills that students should have in order for employers to select them to undergo industrial training at their organizations. The most preferred criteria by employers are communication skills, students’ participation in sports and cocurricular activities, working experience, mastery in English language, and academic qualification. Therefore, a thorough and systematic planning should be done by PPSM to ensure that these skills are developed and integrated into the curriculum of teaching and learning.
The findings of this study may indirectly improve the existing courses in UKM by ensuring that the courses offered can provide students with good communication skills and enhance the English language skills among students. In addition, they will enhance the interests of the students to participate more in extracurricular activities and sports at the university. The feedbacks from the industry are their voice that needs UKM students, PPSM students to have criteria that they need to become their employees. These findings are really useful as it will help university to prepare their students with skills needed by the industries and increase the marketability of the UKM students in finding job after graduation.
Organization name: __________________ Organization address: _______________ Size of organization:
Less than 50 employees 51–150 employees More than 150 employees Organization is a:
Head office Branch Not applicable Organization’s type:
Government Private Government agency Others. Please state __________________ Organization’s sector:
Financial Manufacturing Services Industrial Property and development Education Consultation Transportation Food and agriculture Security and defense IT and communication Others. Please state: _____________ How many students per intake for industrial training purposes for a particular period in your organization? __________________________________________
See Table
Number | Item | Scale | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
B1 | English proficiency | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
B2 | Malay proficiency | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
B3 | Proficiency in other languages | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
B4 | Communication skills | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
B5 | Working experience | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
B6 | Duration of industrial training | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
B7 | Academic qualifications | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
B8 | Impressive resume | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
B9 | Company/organisation policy | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
B10 | Amount of students’ intake for industrial training for a particular period | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
B11 | Students’ involvement in extracurricular activities in university | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
B12 | Students’ involvement in sport activities | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Circle your answer based on the scale given.
1 = very unimportant, 2 = unimportant, 3 = not sure, 4 = important, and 5 = very important.
See Table
Number | Item | Scale | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C1 | Tasks given are suitable for the students’ academic background | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
C2 | Students are exposed to the real working environment | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
C3 | Students are exposed to the organization’s work ethics | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Circle your answer based on the scale given.
1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = not sure, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree.
See Table
Number | Item | Scale | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D1 | Punctuality | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D2 | Ability to perform task/project | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D3 | Initiative/willingness to learn | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D4 | Willingness to accept responsibility | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D5 | Interest towards task/project given | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D6 | Commitment towards task/project given | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D7 | Good relationship with other personnel in your organization | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D8 | Ability to communicate/convey information | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D9 | Follow rules and regulation | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D10 | Properly dressed and neat | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D11 | Ability to understand instruction from supervisor/employer | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D12 | Ability to work in group | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D13 | Ability to solve problems | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D14 | Ability to lead | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D15 | Ability to analyse problems | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D16 | Ability to interpret analysis/project result | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D17 | Ability to think creatively | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D18 | Ability to plan and execute task given | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D19 | Ability to make decision | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D20 | Ability to give opinion related to the task | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D21 | Ability to apply knowledge and skills learned in UKM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
D22 | Ability to use the latest technologies | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Circle your answer based on the scale given.
1 = very unsatisfied, 2 = unsatisfied, 3 = not sure, 4 = satisfied, and 5 = very satisfied.
Would you be interested in offering the student a permanent position?
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The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.
The authors would like to thank UKM for providing the research grant (UKM-PTS-2012-069 & UKM-PTS-2011-039).