The Relation of Human Capital and Competitiveness Factor towards Graduate Competencies

Abstract

Graduate unemployment issues have been related to unused human resources in the country. Mainly, the unemployment of graduates could adversely impact a high-quality and educated workforce. Hence, to answer the unemployment phenomena of our graduates, the research is motivated to investigate the graduates’ competency issues in getting jobs. Based on the literature, graduate competency is viewed as the main factor for employment. To grasp the understanding of graduate competency issues in our country, this research has implemented a preliminary study to develop the scale. The competency construct that is specifically used in this study is to identify the influence of human capital and competitiveness factors that may lead to competency among graduates. A total of 30 respondents were randomly selected to represent the actual 384 sample size of the study. The respondents were Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) graduates working in several services organizations in Malaysia. Our findings for the reliability analysis of the survey items showed strong reliability of Cronbach’s alpha values within the ranges of α = .735 and α = .926 for all items. Then, we ran a correlational analysis to understand the relationship between items. The results show that all items were significant at p < .05 with Pearson correlation coefficient analysis. To highlight one of the key findings in our research, technical skills relate highly to graduate competency (r = .564). Additionally, the competitiveness factor towards graduates' competency level was highly related to organizational management competitiveness (r = .665), followed by general competitiveness (r = .556), employability competitiveness (r = .547) and dominant competitiveness (r = .511). It is noteworthy to mention that the aggressive competitiveness factor shows the lowest correlation coefficient value (r = .237). Our findings contribute to the understanding of how important it is to develop human capital with a high level of graduate competency values. Additionally, the research proposes that a competent graduate should be able to compete in a global workforce. Finally, it is also important to note that graduate competency should also be based on positive human values and personalities, and these two should also be augmented.