Qur`anic guidelines for generic skills : an applied study of IRK students, IIUM

Abstract

Universities play an important role to produce quality graduates who possess excellent skills in both academic and extra curricula activities to cater the need of the current job market. Employers prefer to recruit officials who are competent in interpersonal communication, leadership skill, team work, oral and written skills. They are reluctant to employ graduates lacking certain necessary skills. They prefer graduates who are flexible and take initiative to undertake different challenging tasks. This reveals the fact that there is a serious gap between the skills that are required by the employers and the skills that the graduates possess. Therefore, this research is conducted to examine students’ perception and practice of generic skills and to evaluate the methods adopted to improve such skills at the university. The researcher focused on five aspects of generic skills namely; communication, team work, problem solving, lifelong learning and self-esteem. From Qur’Énic perspective, the same terms have been used except minor differences in using various terms. The thematic interpretation is used when discussing these aspects from the Qur’Én. The quantitative research involved 140 Islamic Revealed Knowledge undergraduate students, International Islamic University Malaysia. The instrument used is a set of questionnaire and the data are analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 11.5. The data are presented in tables based on the frequencies and percentage. The findings showed that the students need generic skills to become successful graduates and they have to develop these skills during their period of study. They need to improve different skills through various in and out of classroom learning activities such as classroom discussions, group work, presentation and project assignment. These skills will turn them to be flexible in order to function effectively in a wide range of social and professional context.