World Applied Sciences Journal 35 (12): 2659-2664, 2017

ISSN 1818-4952
© IDOSI Publications, 2017
DOI: 10.5829/idosi.wasj.2017.2659.2664

Undergraduate Career-Readiness Challenges in Malaysia

Noorziah Mohd Salleh, Prikshat Verma, Alan Nankervis and John Burgess

Faculty of Business and Management, UniversitiTeknologi MARA,

Sabah Branch, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Abstract: Career readiness refers to the preparedness of an individual in looking for a job and moving towards
establishing the career path that they have chosen. The aim of this study was to discuss the proportions of
Malaysian undergraduates being career-ready, together with the influence of gender. Four hundred
questionnaires distributed, but only 362 were considered usable. The data were collected from ten universities.
The career readiness of undergraduates was measured by the Career Factors Inventory (CFI), which consists
of two dimensions of information, namely the need for career information and the need for self-knowledge and
two personal-emotional dimensions: career choice anxiety and generalised indecisiveness. The majority of
respondents reported having a high level of career readiness. This research also found that the majority of
Malaysian undergraduates reported having a high need for career information and for self-knowledge. Male
undergraduates were more career-ready than female students. Findings on the career -readiness levels could
possibly facilitate the government and educators in developing relevant programs and beneficial co-curriculum
in universities. Co-curricular contents should be enhanced by integrating career-readiness positive attributes
that would benefit them directly after graduation.

Key words: Self-learning Self-practice Mock job interview Performance

INTRODUCTION facilities at workplaces such as childcare and eldercare

After completion of undergraduate studies, the
transition from being students to practicing employees
can be challenging and problematic issues for fresh
graduates. In 2016, it was reported that there were 200, 000
unemployed graduates in Malaysia [1], although the
job market was quite stable. Previous research has
highlighted the failure reasons of Malaysian graduates
to obtain secure jobs include soft skills deficits,
personality and practical competencies issues [2, 3];
shortfalls in the educational system [4, 5, 6] and graduates
pursuing studies which are less relevant to the market
needs [7]. The latter authors also concluded that higher
proportions of unemployed graduates were female or
those from lower income groups.
With respect to the female participation rate, it has
been reported to have increased to 53.6 per cent (2014)
from 47.2 per cent (2000), the highest rate in the past 32
years [8]. The increase female participation rate could
possibly be due to government initiatives such as
encouraging entrepreneurial activities and providing
centers [9].
There are many initiatives offered to graduates to
enhance the university-to-work transition, including a
program carried out by Talent Corporation Malaysia
Berhad (TalentCorp). The program has four key
imperatives – namely focus on enhancing graduates’
employability; promoting talent and diversity; engaging
Malaysians abroad; and facilitating foreign talent [10].
The Graduate Employability Management Scheme (GEMS)
aspires to reduce talent shortages by 2020 and graduates
are expected to be equipped with required skills by
employers. These initiatives have shown some positive
results. For example, TalentCorp managed to attract more
than 2, 000 Malaysians working overseas to return home
and serve in Malaysia [11] and the Graduate Employability
Management Scheme (GEMS) has successfully trained
over 9, 000 graduates [12]. Although many initiatives have
been undertaken to monitor career readiness issues and
a few of them have been successfully delivered, graduate
career readiness/employability is still reported as low [13].
This paper explores career-readiness levels and

Corresponding Auhtor: Noorziah Mohd Salleh, Faculty of Business and Management,

UniversitiTeknologi MARA, Sabah branch, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia .
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 World Appl. Sci. J., 35 (12): 2659-2664, 2017
challenges faced by Malaysian undergraduates,
specifically in terms of identifying the extent of the
graduates’ career-readiness and the influence of gender
on these levels.
Review of Related Literature: Mansor and Tan [14]
defined career-readiness as the preparedness of an
individual in looking for a job and moving towards
establishing the career path that they have chosen. It
implies that individuals are firm with their choice of career;
and know very well what to expect when entering the
workforce and do what is necessary in order to adapt to
their chosen career. Conley [15] stated that career-
readiness is “readiness for courses specific to an
occupational area or certificate”. The Career Readiness
Partner Council [16] explained that a “career-ready”
person is one who successfully navigates themselves
through pathways that link both education and
employment, towards achieving a fulfilling, financially-
secure and successful career; and mastering key
academic, technical and workplace knowledge.
According to the Ministry of Higher Education
Malaysia [17], Malaysians undergraduates were not
“career-ready” as they were unable to meet the demands
of the market yet. As such, they were not wholly prepared
when they chose careers and therefore a mismatch of
skills is likely to occur. Conley [15] explained that career -
readiness is concerned with knowledge, skills and
learning strategies necessary to begin studies leading to
chosen career pathways [18]. The authors emphasized
course selection as the most influential factor for their
future career choice. They further suggested that career
readiness is different from “career-ready” and “job
trained”, together with the basic expectations of how one
should behave in a workplace and the specific knowledge
that is needed when starting work at an entry-level
position.
Previous studies have shown that females were more
inclined to be less career-ready when compared to males
[19] [14]. Mansor and Tan [14] reported the influence of
gender on the career readiness of Malaysian
undergraduates. In their study they found that female
undergraduates had lower career readiness levels
compared to their male counterparts and it was also
observed that females had a higher Need for Career
Information (NCI). Further, the female undergraduates
were more anxious and indecisive when it came to making
career decisions. This suggests that female
undergraduates need additional guidance when it comes
to career decision-making, or career indecision. Career in
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decision is the inability of an individual to make decisions
regarding the career they wish to pursue [20].
Powell and Luzzo [21] also reported that young men
were more likely to have greater control over their career
decision-making when compared to young women. In
addition, a study of career indecision among Malaysian
undergraduates (Talib and Kit Aun [22] found that female
undergraduates who have high academic achievement
together with low occupational information were most
likely to be undecided on their careers. Male
undergraduates were more decisive about their career
choices than female undergraduates. Females were also
found to be less confident in making career decisions due
to their expected future roles such as being mothers,
housewives and vocational professionals [19]. Male
students were projected as having greater career
readiness compared to females due to awareness of their
expected future roles as the head of a family. A study by
Mansor and Rashid [23] on Malaysian students at the
National Youth Skills Training Institute (IKBN), reported
that female students felt constant pressure to adhere the
strict control of their parents on their behaviors that led to
difficulty in their career decision-making. Similarly, Fan,
Cheung, Leong and Cheung [24] found in their study that
career readiness of an individual is affected by family
factors.
Relevant recent statistics show that there were more
females than males enrolling in universities. In 2007, there
were 29, 333 (38%) males and 47, 264 (62%) females
enrolled in the public universities for bachelor degree
level (Institute of Labour Market Information & Analysis
(ILMIA), 2013). In 2012, males enrolled in the universities
for bachelor degree programs were 112, 748 (37%), whilst
females were 192, 393 (63%). In 2013, females exceeded
male students that accounted for 209, 104 (63%) of
females enrolled and males were only 122, 306 (37%).
Although, the proportion of females was higher than
males in universities, the majority of previous studies
found that males were more career ready than females [14]
[22] [23]. Thus, it is important to investigate the
relationship between gender and career readiness in the
Malaysian context.
Hypothesis:
H1: There is a significant difference between genders in
career readiness, career choice anxiety (CCA), generalised
indecisiveness (GI), need for career information (NCI) and
need for self-knowledge (NSK) among under graduates in
Malaysia’s public universities.
 World Appl. Sci. J., 35 (12): 2659-2664, 2017
For hypotheses testing, independent samples t-test
analysis was used, the significance level was set at 0.05
( = 0.05).
Research Design and Data Gathering Procedures: The
respondents were Malaysian undergraduates who were
final year students from varied disciplines. The
respondents were selected based on random sampling
method, in which the researcher identified individuals who
have relevant information about this study. Four hundred
questionnaires were distributed, with398 returned and
ultimately362 questionnaires were usable. This was due to
incomplete questionnaires submitted, or respondents did
not meet the requirements. The 21 items used showed a
Cronbach's alpha of 0.841. This is considered a good
indication of construct reliability. According to the
Ministry of Education Malaysia [25], there were 33, 410
undergraduate students enrolled in Malaysia’s public
universities. According to Krejcie and Morgan [26], a
sample size of 382 is sufficient to represent a population
size of 75, 000 and above. Therefore the sample was
considered representative. The career readiness of
undergraduates was measured by using Chartrand,
Robbins, Morrill and Boggs’ [27] Career Factors
Inventory (CFI).
Only top 10 public universities in Malaysia (referring
to QS World University Rankings 2015/16) were selected;
namely Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Sains Malaysia
(USM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universit
iKebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Putra Malaysia
(UPM), Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (IIUM),
Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Universiti Malaysia
Sarawak (UNIMAS), UniversitiTeknologi MARA (UiTM)
and Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP).
The questionnaire comprised two sections, Section
A consisted of the respondents’ background (gender,
age, ethnicity, current course and university).
Section B of the questionnaire consisted of the
measurement items of Chartrand, Robbins, Morrill and
Boggs’ [27] Career Factors Inventory (CFI). The
measurement items were developed by Chartrand et al.
[27] to measure the career indecision of individuals,
but it was slightly modified to suit thiscareer readiness
study. The factors included two information dimensions
(Need for Career Information and Need for Self-
Knowledge) and two personal-emotional dimensions
(Career Choice Anxiety and Generalised Indecisiveness).
Career choice anxiety is the level of reported anxiety that
is attached to the process of decision-making; and
generalised indecisiveness was described as the inability
of a person to make decisions even when suitable
2661
conditions are present. Whereas the need for career
information is related to the person’s perceived need for
factual data and experience concerning various
occupations before making any vocational commitments.
Need for self-knowledge was defined as the individual’s
need for self-definition and discovery of self. There were
21 items of CFI that used to measure the career and all
items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale; the scale
ranging from “strongly Disagree” to “strongly agree”.
Data were analysed using descriptive statistics;
frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation and
t-test.
Research Findings: The first section focuses on
descriptive analysis that provides characteristics of the
respondents through frequency distribution and t-test.
The second section covers the descriptive statistics, scale
of measurement and the result of hypothesis testing.
Table 1 shows that there were 199 females and 163
male respondents who participated in this study. The
highest age group of respondents was between 21 to 23
years old (206 respondents). The ethnicity of the main
respondents was Bumiputera Sabah (183 respondents).
Respondents who were doing their bachelor degrees in
Marketing contributed to the highest frequency and
accounted for 54 respondents, followed by Engineering
(51 respondents). The majority of the respondents were
students of UniversitiTeknologi MARA (UiTM) (160
respondents).
To measure the career readiness level, the mean
scores for each of the variables of Career Factors
Inventory (CFI); Career Choice Anxiety (CCA),
Generalized Indecisiveness (GI), Need for Career
Information (NCI) and Need for Self-Knowledge (NSK)
and Career Readiness (CR) were observed and
categorised accordingly as shown in table 2.The
Cronbach’s Alpha for all 21-item is 0.841.Table 2 shows
the mean scores of 362 respondents towards the four
factors of Career Factors Inventory (CFI) by Chartrand,
Robbins, Morrill and Boggs [27]. The mean scores were
summed up to get the subscale score for each of the
factors. The responses were divided into “high” and
“low” categories based on their mean scores.
The majority of respondents reported a high level of
career readiness (M=72.27, SD=10.24). This research
has identified that the majority of respondents had a low
career choice anxiety (M=18.17, SD=4.44) and a low
generalized indecisiveness (M=15.8, SD=3.55) the
respondents reported a high need of career information
(M=22.17, SD=4.29) and high need for self-knowledge
(M=16.12, SD=2.79).
 World Appl. Sci. J., 35 (12): 2659-2664, 2017

Table 1.1 Gender Table 4: Career readiness of Malaysian undergraduate

Frequency Percent Variables Sample size n (%) M Sd
Male 163 45 CR 72.27 10.24
Female 199 55 Low (27 - 71) 158 (43.65)
Total 362 100 High (72 - 105) 204 (56.35)
CCA 18.17 4.44
Table 1.2 Age Low (17 - 30) 239 (66.02)
Frequency Percent High (6 - 16) 123 (33.98)
GI 15.8 3.55
21-23 206 56.9
Low (14 - 25) 278 (76.80)
24-26 127 35.1
High (5 - 13) 84 (23.20)
27-29 22 6.1
NCI 22.17 4.29
30 above 7 1.9
High (20 -25) 273 (75.41)
Total 362 100
Low (6 - 19) 89 (24.59)
NSK 16.12 2.79
Table 1.3: Ethnicity
High (21 - 25) 337 (93.09)
Frequency Percent Low (5-20) 25 (6.91)
Chinese 40 11 Note: CCA = Career choice anxiety, GI = Generalized Indecisiveness, NCI
India 10 2.8 = Need for Career Information, NSK = Need for Self-Knowledge, CR =
Malay 104 28.7 Career readiness, n = the amount of respondents, M = Mean, SD = Standard
Bumiputera Sabah 183 50.6 Deviation. N = 362 respondents.
Others 25 6.9
Total 362 100 Table 5: Career readiness among Malaysian undergraduates between genders
Variables Gender n M SD T-Test Sig.(2-Tailed)
Table 2: Respondents’ University CR 2.50 0.013*
Fre Percent LOW (27 - 71) Male 163 73.74 4.29
Others 22 6.1 HIGH (72 - 105) Female 199 71.06 4.49
Universiti Malaya (UM) 36 9.9 CCA 2.82 0.005
UniversitiSains Malaysia (USM) 12 3.3 LOW (17 - 30) Male 163 18.9 3.79
UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) 19 5.2 HIGH (6 - 16) Female 199 17.58 3.22
UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia 25 6.9 GI 3.84 0.001
Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) 31 8.6 LOW (14 - 25) Male 163 16.59 4.33
Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (IIUM) 6 1.7 HIGH (5 - 13) Female 199 15.15 4.27
Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) 11 3 NCI -0.132 0.895
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 16 4.4 HIGH (20 -25) Male 163 22.14 2.72
UniversitiTeknologi MARA (UiTM) 160 44.2 LOW (6 - 19) Female 199 22.20 2.84
Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) 3 0.8 NSK -0.01 0.992
Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) 21 5.8 HIGH (21 - 25) Male 163 16.12 10.05
Total 362 100 LOW (5-20) Female 199 16.12 10.27
Note: CR = Career readiness, CCA = Career choice anxiety, GI =
Table 3:Respondents’ Courses Generalized Indecisiveness, NCI = Need for Career Information, NSK = Need
Frequency % for Self-Knowledge, n = number of respondents, M = Mean, SD = Standard
Arts 3 0.8 Deviation. *to indicate statistical significance
Education 3 0.8
Finance 3 0.8 Male undergraduates were more career ready than
Law and Policy Studies 4 1.1
their female counterparts (M=73.64, SD=4.29), they were
Computer Science 8 2.2
Quantity Surveying 8 2.2 also reported to be less anxious when need to make a
Health/Medicine 9 2.5 career choice (M=18.9, SD=3.79). The independent t-test
Science 9 2.5 analysis shows that there was a statistically significant
Administrative Science 16 4.4 difference between gender and career readiness among
Economics 26 7.2
undergraduates in Malaysia’s public universities [t (360)
Business Management Studies 38 10.5
Tourism 40 11 = 2.50, p = 0.05]. The results showed a significant
Accounting 42 11.6 difference between gender and CCA [t (360) = 2.82, p =
Others 48 13.3 0.05] and a significant difference between gender and GI
Engineering 51 14.1 [t (319.12) = 3.84, p = 0.05]. Both NCI and NSK showed
Marketing 54 14.9
insignificant results that mean both gender did not show
Total 362 100
significant difference. The null hypothesis that there is no

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 World Appl. Sci. J., 35 (12): 2659-2664, 2017
significant difference between genders in career
readiness, career choice anxiety (CCA), generalized
indecisiveness (GI), need for career information (NCI) and
need for self-knowledge (NSK) among undergraduates in
Malaysia’s public universities was rejected
CONCLUSION
This study examined the extent of undergraduates’
career readiness and how gender influences the level. It is
found that the majority of respondents regardless of their
gender, reported having a high level of career readiness,
a high need for career information and a high need for
self-knowledge. These results are consistent with Mansor
and Tan [14]. It can be concluded that males are more
ready in terms of career decision-making, possibly due to
the fact of they tend to follow the traditional paths of their
fathers’ careers [19]; whereas females possibly see their
roles as mothers, housewives and vocational
professionals which support Hirschi and Lage’s[19]
finding that females are less confident in making career
decisions due to their anticipated future roles as mothers,
housewives and vocational professionals. As such,
females need to be more exposed to career development
courses in order to provide them with assistance in
selecting their potential future careers appropriately.
Male undergraduates are reported to be less anxious
when make a career choice, possibly due to that they are
facing minimal problems and have greater control when
dealing with career decision-making. These findings are
consistent with Zhou and Santos [28] and; Powell and
Luzzo [21] who claimed that male students were less
anxious than their female counterparts. Females were more
burdened with the decision to be homemakers and
professionals and dealing with controlling parents [19]
[23]; which seems to be the reason why they face
difficulties in choosing their careers.
It is therefore important to highlight that career
readiness levels are different between male and female
undergraduates in Malaysia’s public universities.
Educators and the government need to initiate programs
or courses in order to assist them in making career
decisions – for example, career development and personal
development courses. In regard to the high need for
career information, websites or online information should
be developed and disseminated throughout universities.
A greater understanding of career decision-making
amongst university students is important, as it may assist
in developing initiatives that could support students’
2663
development and decision-making. Previous studies have
shown that individuals’ understanding of themselves,
career choices that are available to them and nature of
contrasting jobs, are most likely to be formed during the
time they spend in (formal) education [29]. The
government and educators need to collaborate to improve
undergraduates’ career developmental process so that
more informed and confident students can be developed.
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