Development of employability skills assessment tool for manufacturing industry

Mastering employability skills is one of the global problems which employers are facing with graduates or their future employees. Various research on employability skills have been conducted nationally and internationally and it was found that many technical graduates nowadays are lack of employability skills rather than technical skills. The main goal of this research is to develop an employability skill assessment tool using the Kepner-Tregoe (K-T) method in which weight factor is set. Samples for this research consisted of 107 employers from five types of Malaysian manufacturing industry. The results showed that employers in all five categories of manufacturing industry are in consensus on the importance for all seven of the employability skills. These skills were ranked as follows; interpersonal skills, thinking skills, personal qualities/values, resource skills, system and technology skills, basic skills and informational skills. From these means, an employability skills assessment tool was developed using the K-T Method and an Employability Skills Assessment Tool Development Model was produce

STEM build program: An initiative towards promoting students thinking and communicative skills

The goal of STEM education is to provide students with skills necessary for success in today's workforce. These skills are defined as real world problem solving inquiry, and creative and critical thinking. This can be achieved by moving towards student-centered teaching. This paper will describe a STEM intervention Program for 60 primary school students which employed an engineering design process as its instructional design. This paper will also discuss on the outcome of the program on the student thinking and communicative skills. Students were engaged in designing a prototype to solve a world challenge by applying science and mathematics concept in the project. The process of designing the prototype was found able to give autonomy to the students to think, plan create and test their ideas and improve on it. During the process their thinking skills and communicative skills were put into practice. Teachers were given training on how to execute this program which secs them a the facilitator and students as the active learner. The advantage of this program is that it provide students with informal practice creatively solving problems long before they need to decide on a course of study for college. The opportunity to practice and understand engineering skill open up a world of possibilities for the students to experience and gained knowledge as to what their careers may be like. Using engineering design principles to complete hands-on, problem-based projects also deepens the student's understanding of scientific processes and emphasize on the 21st Century Skill

AMALAN KAUNSELING SEKOLAH DI UNITED KINGDOM DALAM MENINGKATKAN KESIHATAN MENTAL KANAK-KANAK DAN REMAJA (COUNSELING PRACTICE FOR IMPROVING THE MENTAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS IN THE SCHOOLS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM)

Remaja kini banyak menghadapi masalah-masalah mental disebabkan faktor-faktor seperti penderaan, perpecahan keluarga, buli dan kehilangan orang tersayang dan perubahan sosial yang lebih meluas. Namun amalan kaunseling di sekolah di beberapa tempat di dunia dalam meningkatkan kesihatan mental kanak-kanak dan remaja masih mencari kaedah terbaik untuk melaksanakannya. Kajian ini menerangkan keadaan amalan kaunseling sekolah yang diaplikasikan di United Kingdom (UK) keatas kanak-kanak dan remaj.  Kajian ini merupakan suatu kajian ulasan sistematik. Kajian mendapati tahap amalan kaunseling terbaik perlu bagi menyelesaikan masalah sosial dalam kalangan remaja yang semakin meningkat. Namun, amalan kaunseling sekolah di UK masih lagi kekurangan dalam menyediakan akses perkhidmatan yang baik kepada remaja sekolah. Justeru, faktor yang menjadi galakan kepada amalan kaunseling terbaik adalah seperti latihan profesional untuk kaunselor, keinginan remaja terhadap perkhidmatan kaunseling, penyepaduan perkhidmatan kaunseling sekolah dengan perkhidmatan professional kesihatan mental lain, serta tahap keberkesanan kaunseling sekolah yang holistik. Faktor ini perlu diambil berat bagi menambah baik amalan perkhidmatan kaunseling di sekolah bagi menangani penyakit psikologi yang merebak dalam kalangan remaja.Kata Kunci: amalan kaunseling terbaik, akses perkhidmatan, penyakit psikologi, kesihatan mental, kanak-kanak dan remaja (CYP) ABSTRACTNowadays, many adolescents are facing various mental problems due to several factors, such as abuse, broken family, bully, loses of loved ones and more extensive social changes. However, the counselling practices in schools around the globe are still looking for the best approach to improve the mental health of children and adolescents. This study describes the counselling practices on children and adolescents in schools in the U.K. This study involves a systematic review. It is found that the best counselling practice is pertinent in solving the proliferating social issues among the adolescents. Despite this fact, the counselling practice in the U.K. is still unable to provide good service access to the adolescents. Hence, several factors identified to encourage best counselling practices include professional trainings for counsellors, adolescents’ desire for counselling services, integration of school counselling services and other professional mental health services, and effectiveness of holistic school counselling. All these factors should be considered to improve the school counselling services as an effort to curb the psychological illnesses among the adolescents. Keywords: best counselling practice, service access, psychological illnesses, mental health, children and adolescents (CYP

Impact of integrated STEM smart communities program on students scientific creativity

Scientific creativity is such a complex skill and is often ignored by teachers during teaching activities. The purpose of this study was to identify students’ changes of scientific creativity in an integrated STEM of Smart Communities programme. The programme exposed students with integrated STEM education through project-based learning involving the application of the engineering design process. The elements of scientific creativity are divided into three aspects, which are scientific processes, inquiry skills, and creative thinking. The study was conducted experimentally on two groups of students, i.e., the control group that did not receive the STEM of Smart Communities modules and the treatment group, i.e., students who had received the modules. This study was conducted in six schools, with three schools with an intervention and three schools without any intervention. Data were collected through a questionnaire given to 330 students. The findings showed a significant difference and have a positive impact on the element of scientific processes, inquiry skills and creative thinking among students with interventions rather than students without intervention

STEM education in schools: Teachers’ readiness to change

Change is an important aspect for the implementation of STEM education in school. For teachers to implement STEM, they should have readiness to change and to have no resistance to change. However, teachers are still teaching for examination purposes regardless of the efforts from the Ministry urging them to change. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate 20 science teachers and 18 pre-service teachers’ readiness to change and resistance to change with regards to STEM implementation. The participants were involved in the STEMBuild Training of Trainers (TOT) Program. The program consisted of three phases, which were: conception of STEM, knowledge building, and practical implementation. The content of the program was in-line with the Malaysian primary school curriculum. This was a pre-experimental design study because it involved only one group. Change beliefs scale and resistance to change scale were administered after the program. For the change beliefs scale the teachers had the highest mean score for Personal Valence and lowest mean score for Self-efficacy. Even though these two subscales of change beliefs showed opposite direction of belief towards change, the participants mean scores of the overall change beliefs was high which indicated a positive inclination towards the change. In terms of resistance to change scale, the teachers were generally supporters of the change. The findings revealed that the participants were ready to carry out the STEM activities in school, they adhered to the belief for this change and their resistance to change was minimal. © School of Engineering, Taylor’s University

The Existence and Education of Ceramic Craftsmen Society of Polutan Village in the 4.0 Industrial Revolution Era

This research is different from previous research where this research specifically wants to describe and reveal what the existence of the ceramic craftsman community is like, which incidentally is still a lot of people who use traditional methods in a modern era and its relationship with the level of education of the community where the people can get jobs from all age. The research method used in this study is a qualitative research method in which researchers seek data in the form of explanations from informants and other relevant data sources. The data collection method in this study used unstructured interview techniques and half-involved observation in order to obtain valid data and in accordance with the research objectives. Teknik penentuan sampel pada penelitian ini yaitu menggunakan snowball sampling. Researchers use data analysis with data reduction, data presentation, and finally drawing conclusions or verification. The results of the research are as follows: (1) There are no “unemployed” people of all age levels; (2) People Prefer to Work as Ceramic Craftsmen so that few continue their undergraduate education; (3) Pulutan Village is Known as a Tourism Village for Ceramic Craftsmen in Minahasa; (4) Pulutan Village Ceramic Industry Needs Government Support To Further Develop; and (5) Pulutan Village Is Often Used As A Place To Develop Knowledge And Skills. The implication of this research is for the development of science, especially the discipline of sociology related to rural sociology, sociology of tourism, and so on as well as social science in general. Conclusion of this research are we can see that Pulutan Village as one of the tourist villages due to their tradition as ceramics and grain craftsmen is a village. very independent even the unemployment rate is very low

Analysing Teaching Strategy, Reflection and Networking Indicators Towards Learning for Sustainable Development (LSD) of Green Skills

UNESCO-UNEVOC has reported that the levels of awareness towards the implementation of green skills amongst TVET teacher are at low level. Meanwhile, studies have shown that teacher have lack of skills and weak of knowledge about the concept of sustainable development. The study used quantitative approach and the structural equation model was used to measure the effect of the three indicators which are teaching strategy, networking, and reflecting towards learning of sustainable development. These indicators have been adapted from the Model of CSCT. The population of this study consisted of 202 TVET teacher trainee from the Institute of Teacher Education. Meanwhile the sample technique used is disproportionate stratified random sampling method and the sample size is 144. Findings show that networking and reflection were found to be positively related to learning for sustainable development, while teaching strategy was not significantly related to learning for sustainable development. The indicator of model was observed to be sufficiently solid and flexible to incorporate and measure the four construct which are cognitive, technology, emotional intelligence, and action competency. Finally, the results show that networking indicator have the strongest relationship to learning for sustainable development to develop green skills competency in industrial 4.0 amongst TVET teacher trainee

Factors that inhibit science teachers' implementation of learner autonomy after a professional development collaboration

Developing learner autonomy can improve learners' outcomes. Teaching students autonomy is a cultural endeavour. Therefore teachers operating from an Asian heritage may struggle to implement learner autonomy. Teachers face several pressures when implementing learner autonomy, and require development. This paper investigates what prevented science teachers from implementing autonomy-supportive strategies after a Collaborative Professional Development Programme (CPDP). CPDP guides science teachers to implement learner autonomy, with Assessment for Learning (AfL) principles. It flexibly and expertly encourages teachers to strategise their autonomy. This study is part of a more extensive study. Three primary science teachers participated in the CPDP. They were interviewed afterwards to elicit inhibiting factors, which included lack of time to prepare students for examinations and resources (pressure from above); non-cooperative students (pressure from below) and teachers' beliefs that students were unable to become autonomous (pressure from within). Detailed recommendations are given, with implications for professional programme developers and policymakers.. © 2019 Primrose Hall Publishing Group

Using nominal group technique to identify career decision elements for TVET entrepreneurs

This study aims to identify and assess the psychological, social and economic determinants for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) entrepreneurs making career decisions. The formation of these elements is based on expert panel views and agreements using Nominal Group Technique (NGT). A total of 10 experts involved in full-time entrepreneurship career were identified. The process of voting in the NGT session for career decisions is intended to determine the priority level of each element according to the preferences of each individual panel based on scale interpretation. NGT requires five stages: study briefings, idea generation, sharing and discussion ideas, voting for the best ideas, and the presentation of research findings. Therefore, the findings of this study will be the most important point of reference in the construction of career path models for TVET entrepreneurs.. © 2019 Primrose Hall Publishing Group