Challenges faced by engineering lecturers in integrating technical and employability skills in the curriculum: a case study in community college, Malaysia

Abstract

This study was conducted in order to identify the challenges or problems faced by the lecturers of Skill Training Institutes in Malaysia, especially lecturers of Community College in the engineering field,in integrating technical and employability skills in teaching and learning. There spondents for this study are 197 engineering lecturers of College Community. This study adopted a quantitative research methodology and utilized questionnaire as the instrument of the study. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data of the study.Findings of the study show that for the integration of technicalskill,themajorityofrespondentsagreedthat"thelackofproperequipment,whichareinaccordancewiththeteachingandlearningprocess" isthemainchallengeorproblemintheprocess of integrating technical skills in the curriculum. Whilefortheintegrationofemployabilityskills,themajorityofrespondents agreed that "they do not get a clear understanding on the importance of employability skills" is the main challenge or problem in the process of integrating employability skills inthe curriculum. In addition, the majority of respondents showed their strong agreements on the challenges or problems encountered in integrating technical and employability skills in teaching and learning. Mastering the technical and employability skills for the students is indeed vital and it is an important criterion in getting employed. Therefore, every lecturer should play a role in educating students to become excellent human capital, who will develop the economy of a country.