The infusion and acquisition of soft skills in real estate curriculum

Abstract

The rationales cited for the depleted unemployment prospects of public university graduates are that they are deficient in linguistic such as English proficiency in both oral and written, and technical skills, inadequately prepared for the job market, plus cognitive abilities such as problem-solving and analytical thinking. The most-recent initiative or skill bridging measure taken by the Malaysian public universities is to build into the formal curriculum soft skills to produce graduates with diverse abilities. Notwithstanding, there is no extensive attempt to review the integration of soft skills in the real estate program. Therefore, the paper examines the integration and acquisition of the entire range of soft skills embedded in real estate formal coursework and training. A survey method was employed for the study, and structured questionnaires were distributed to the graduates of the real estate program. The data was analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis. Key finding revealed that, moral and professional ethic skills, and communication skills have been well imparted and acquired via formal coursework. The précis of the analyses signified that, soft skills infused in real estate curriculum have not met the needs of the graduates, with the exemption for a few skills competencies. This is the indication that the assimilation of skills in the real estate curriculum has not been completely realized. Therefore, the study brings to the fore the need for improvement in the teaching-learning process and teaching strategies in real estate curriculum.