There are many challenges faced by the graduates of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in getting themselves employed. One of which is the lack of soft skills which is directly related to employability. Thus improving the soft skills means increasing the graduate’s opportunity to be employed. As such, employability of HEI graduates is one of the key agendas of the Ministry of Education (MOE). The objective of this paper is two prongs. First, is to highlight the scenario of Islamic Studies Graduates (ISGs) career and employability status after they have graduated from the Public Universities (PUs). The second, is to identify the elements of soft skills of these graduates who are employed in industry unrelated to their academic qualification. The first objective is achieved by obtaining data of both job career and employability rate of five PUs that offered Islamic Studies Programmes (ISPs). The data obtained from Univerisity Sains Islam Malaysia’s (USIM’s) career unit and Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin’s (UniSZA’s) alumini were collected and analyzed descriptively. The second objective is achieved by interviewing the personnel of the organizations who employ these graduates. The data of the interviews will be transcribed and analyzed qualitatively by using Atlas. The first objective is achieved through two parts of the finding. The first part revealed that 40% of USIM’s ISGs are employed in the professional and educational job. The other part of the finding interestingly revealed that out of five ISPs offered by PUs, UniSZA’s two ISPs which Degree in Education (Islamic Studies) and Degree in Education (Primary Studies) achieved a 100% employability for two consecutive years, 2015 and 2016. This finding concur with study conducted by Aini, Azizi and Yahya (2002); Fasan, Marcon, (2018). Besides the existing elements of soft skills crafted by the MOE, the finding of second objective is expected to reveal new emerging themes of ISGs soft skills. These themes are the elements that will form the structure of soft skills of the ISGs for PUs in Malaysia. It is expected that these soft skills would provide profound insight to researchers and educators alike what specific soft skills that ISG should have or acquire before they graduate from HEIs, especially in the PUs. Thus, it is envisaged that the new structure of soft skills could perhaps be a guiding principles during the process of relooking and redesigning the current curriculum for ISPs offered at the Malaysian HEIs.
Azmy, N. binti, & Zain, A. Z. bin M. (2018). Engineering Technology Curriculum Development: Bridging the Gap Between Academia-Industry Through Undergraduate Final Year Project. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 7(4), 459–467.
Rahman, I. (1992) Pendidikan Islam Di Malaysia. Bangi: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Rahman, I., Aziz, A. @ A. M. & Muda, M. Y. (1993a) Isu-Isu Pendidikan Islam Di Malaysia: Cabaran & Harapan. Kolej Agama Sultan Zainal Abidin.
Abdallah, S. S., Hussien, S. & Hisham, N. A. (2011) ‘The Experience of Islamization of Knowledge at the International Islamic University Malaysia’, New Intellectual Horizons in Education, pp. 91–111.
Ahmad, M. Y. (2015) Institusi Pendidikan Al Qur’an Di Malaysia. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Alex, K. (2009) ‘Soft Skills’, in S, Chand and company. New Delhi.
Bahari, K. A. et al. (2011) ‘JHEPA: Ke Arah Pembangunan Modal Insan’, JHEPA UPSI, 5(1), pp. 179–198. doi: 10.3390/rel5010179.
Boyatzis, R. E. and Kolb, D. A. (1995) ‘Excecutive Skills Profile’, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 10, pp. 3–17.
Hamid, N. A. (2017) ‘UniSZA ’ s Staff Cash Waqf?: The Impact to Social and Economic Development of Terengganu State’, Pertanika Journals, 25, pp. 239–254.
Hillage, J. & Pollard, E. (1999) ‘Employability: developing a framework for policy analysis’, Labour Market Trends, 107(85), pp. 83–84. Available at:
https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/RB85.pdf.
Huzili, H., Zakaria, A., and Salleh, M. S. (2012) ‘Memperkasakan Mahasiswa Kejuteraan Menerusi Penerapan Kemahiran Insaniah (Soft Skills)’, Oxford Reference Online, pp. 583–596. Available at:
http://datubazes.lanet.lv:2148/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100516309%5Cnhttp://datubazes.lanet.lv:2148/view/10.1093/acref/9780199298761.001.0001/acref-9780199298761.
Ibrahim, M. & Salleh, K. (2008) Islam Pasca Kemerdekaan. Karisma Publication Sdn Bhd.
Kardi, N., Awang Hashim, R. and Mohd Yusoff, N. (2009) ‘Enhancing Employability Initiatives?: Malaysia Experience’, The 2009 ASAIHL Conference, pp. 7–18. Available at: http://www.kln.ac.lk/uokr/ASAIHL/Malayasia.pdf.
Fasan, M., Marcon, C. (2018). Accounting Choice under IFRS: The Role of Accounting Tradition and Managerial Opportunism, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences 8 (3): 209-223.
Knight, P. (2003) Assessment, Learning and Employability. UK: McGraw-Hill Education.
Nasaruddin, P. (2016) ‘Gilap Kualiti Graduan Pengajian Islam’, Berita Harian, 3 August.
Mackey, S., & Tonkin, L. (2005) ‘Living Well, Working Smart - Soft Skills For Success’, in McCown, V. (ed.) Book Publisher Network. USA.
Kumar, K. R., & Kumar, A. V. (2016) ‘Impact of Soft Skills Training on Employability Competency in Sims, Bangalore: A Study With Reference To B-School Graduates’, International Journal of Research in IT & Management, 6(3), pp. 10–17.
Malik. (2019) Penyata Rasmi Parlimen Dewan Rakyat Parlimen Keempat Belas Penggal Kedua Mesyuarat Ketiga. Wilayah Persekutuan.
Mcquaid, R. W. & Lindsay, C. (2005) ‘The Concept of Employability’, Urban Studies, 42(2), pp. 197–219. doi: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.10.027.
Yusof, A. (2015) Institusi Pendidikan Al Qur’an Di Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Nilsson, S. (2010) ‘Enhancing individual employability: the perspective of engineering graduates’, Education + Training, 52(6/7), pp. 540–551. doi: 10.1108/00400911011068487.
Bhatnagar & Bhatnagar. (2011) Effective Communication and Soft Skills: Always learning. India: Pearson Education India.
Aini, A., Azizi, C. S. & Yahya, M. H. (2002) ‘Kerjaya Graduan Sarjana Muda Syariah, Akademi Pengajian Islam, Universiti Malaya (1996-2002)’, University of Malaya.
Kaprawi, N., & Azroai, A. (2009) ‘Towards a Sustainable Continuing Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) Programmes in Higher Education Institution (HEI) in Malaysia’, International Conference on Teaching and Learning in Highe
In-Text Citation: (Abdullah, Anuar, Ismail, 2019)
To Cite this Article: Abdullah, A. A., Anuar, M. S., Ismail, M. N. (2019). Snapshot on the Career and Employability of Islamic Studies Graduates in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(11), 864–879.
Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
