NEW graduates are expected to be fully functional and productive workers by most employers within the shortest possible period upon employment.
In return for appropriate salary, graduates are expected to perform their jobs independently, with assured quality work outputs.
Of late, grievances are often heard from industry players, in particular those from the automotive sector, questioning the low adaptability of new graduates to the new work environment.
There are less disputes among employers on the graduates’ academic ability, but their lack of hands-on skills have deprived them from quick adaptation in the workplace.
In general, new graduates may require some three years to adapt to workplaces before they are able to reasonably perform their respective functions. Some may have learned a few skills required to perform their jobs.
They often opt to leave the workplace for new employment and most admittedly cite their inability to adapt as one of the reasons for the job migration.
Although during their academic years, they are required to undergo industrial training prerequisite for their graduation, more often the training lacks appropriate coordination and supervision to ensure the right industrial exposures are achieved to commensurate with their classroom learning.
It is fair to say that the training for graduates is haphazardly placed in any industry willing to accommodate them and often, the industry operations are not even relevant to the area of studies of the graduates.
Most industrialised countries have adopted “work-based learning” (WBL) concepts in their effort to ensure immediate employability of their graduates by the industries.
Among the popular WBL modules adopted are internship, cooperative work experience and apprenticeship.
Elective internship is a preferred mode of WBL engineering education by most manufacturing industries for graduating students.
The course structures are determined by the respective industry with on-the-job training (OJT) programme tailored to suit the academic curriculum of a collaborating institute of higher learning for the award of degrees upon the students’ graduation.
Students may spend between 80 and 600 hours on the OJT per semester, depending on the intensity of training as determined by the industry.
Course and training supervision and coordination are primarily undertaken by the industry, with secondary role by the university.
On the other hand, cooperative work experience of the WBL includes a set of defined competencies to be completed by graduating students at a work site, which is directly related to the areas of their studies and the potential industrial employers.
Typically, the students will spend at least one semester working as employees performing a predetermined function by the industry and the university.
Apprenticeship is the oldest mode of WBL and is still largely practised by manufacturing industries in the developed countries.
The programme combines classroom academic-based instruction with OJT work-based learning that results in students’ graduation with certificate of mastery of the work-based skills.
The duration of a graduate apprenticeship programme depends on the complexity of the occupation, ranging from one year to six years.
However, four-year duration is a norm. The apprentices receive 2,000 hours per year structured OJT training and a minimum of 144 hours per year classroom lectures annually throughout the entire programme duration.
The apprentices are paid salaries, which are appropriately increased annually to support their living expenses during the apprenticeship.
It is encouraging to note that both the local academia, institutes of higher learning, and more importantly, the industries, have now recognised the importance of WBL as a means to produce competent and quality workforce.
In line with this inspiration, Malaysia Automotive Institute, the Jabatan Pengajian Politeknik and Ministry of Education have signed a memorandum of understanding in June to offer WBL degree course in automotive engineering for the student intake in September.
The programme has obtained support from local automotive industries, including Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Toyota Assembly Services Sdn Bhd, Mazda-Bermaz Motor Sdn Bhd, Tan Chong Motor Assemblies (Nissan) Sdn Bhd dan Denso (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.