Universal Journal of Educational Research Vol. 7(11), pp. 2397 - 2405
DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2019.071117
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Perspectives of Asian Employers on Graduates' Soft Skills: A Systematic Review

Afifah Hanim Md Pazil ^*, Razli Che Razak
Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

At present, the situation of the economic world is very challenging. As such employers are looking for versatile graduates, who will be able to drive the organisations so that they can compete successfully in the market place. Graduates nowadays are expected by the employers to not only obtain good degrees and excel in their academics, but also to equip themselves with soft skills. Globalisation means increasing integration of various sectors in today's world and leads to a demand for higher level graduates' soft skills. By adopting a systematic literature review approach, the current study attempts to present an exploration of the employers' perspectives on the soft skills needed by graduates to be developed to get them ready for the job place. The review was guided by the PRISMA Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses). A systematic literature search was undertaken from two main journal databases – Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). All papers reviewed from articles published from 2010 to 2019. Based on the search results, the literature was synthesised, and the varied soft skills were classified into 11 major domains. The contribution of the current study can be seen as the classification of the varied graduates' soft skills. It can provide insightful information to the stakeholders of higher education institutions. To produce job-ready graduates, higher education institutions need to re-evaluate their teaching and learning approaches to develop the necessary graduates' soft skills as needed by the job market.

KEYWORDS
Soft Skills, Graduate, Employers’ Perspectives, Asian

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Afifah Hanim Md Pazil , Razli Che Razak , "Perspectives of Asian Employers on Graduates' Soft Skills: A Systematic Review," Universal Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 7, No. 11, pp. 2397 - 2405, 2019. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2019.071117.

(b). APA Format:
Afifah Hanim Md Pazil , Razli Che Razak (2019). Perspectives of Asian Employers on Graduates' Soft Skills: A Systematic Review. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 7(11), 2397 - 2405. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2019.071117.