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STUDENT EMPLOYABILITY SKILL (Personal, Comunication And Technical Skill): EMPLOYER PERCEPTION
Syamsurizal1, Madhakomala2, Dewi Susita3
Universitas Negeri Jakarta1, Universitas Negeri Jakarta2, Universitas Negeri Jakarta3
email korespondensi: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Improving Indonesian Human Resources Competence is an important issue in the Industrial Revolution Era 4.0. By having competent Human Resources, Indonesia's workforce can compete at the World Level. Higher education is a place to create quality human resources who have competitiveness and competence in their field.
However, the increase in the number of educated Unemployment from Higher Education in Indonesia indicates a gap between the quality of Higher Education graduates and the quality standards required in industries. As part of the Indonesian Education system, Polytechnic of LP3I Jakarta (PLJ) participates in creating competent Human Resources who have work skills and competitiveness. PLJ equips students with various competencies or employability skills needed by industry or companies. In order for students to work in companies, PLJ collaborates with various companies and creates a work placement program in order to place work for students in companies. PLJ has a policy that students must work before students are graduated. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to find out about the employer's perception of the quality of the employability Skills (Personal Skills, Communication Skills &Technical Skills) of students who work in companies. This research is a study using quantitative methods that are analytic descriptive. Primary data were obtained from questionnaires from 67 companies that accepted PLJ students to work. The variables used in this study are work skills consisting of Personal Skills, Communication skills and Technical skills. The results of the study indicate that the company's perception of student employability Skill is good.
Keywords: Employability Skill, Personal Skills, Communication Skills, Technical Skills
INTRODUCION
The number of Indonesian Educated unemployed is 856,644 people. It consisted of 249,705 academy / diploma graduates and 606,939 university graduates. Total unemployment from higher education graduates is 856,644 or equivalent to 12.2% of total open unemployment 7,005,262 people. (BPS, 2017).
From the information above shows that the higher education graduates are not absorbed in the industry due to the quality of graduates who do not match with
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the standards required by the industry. this has become one of the causes of many graduates who are not employed by industry.
The increase of unemployed higher education graduates is a result of the imbalance between labor supply and demand in Indonesia. Job skills and graduate competencies that are not in line with competencies needed by the industry. It shows that the greater challenges for higher education in harmonizing the skills and competencies needed by the industrial world.
The current job qualifications desired by the company not only emphasize the quality of hard skills (technical and academic abilities), but also soft skills. The Soft skills include adaptation skills, communication skills, leadership skills, initiative skills, high willingness and motivation, commitment, decision-making skills, optimism to face life, problem solving, personal integrity, friendliness, friendliness, sociability , etc. According to research states that success in employment is determined by academic competence (technical, hard skills) only contribute 20%, while non-academic competencies (soft skills) determine up to 80% (wordpress.com).
As a Vocational Higher Education, LP3I Jakarta Polytechnic (PLJ) participates in preparing its students and graduates to work in Industry. Before working at a company, PLJ students have got a variety of work skills, both hard and soft skills. The Students also have 5 competency certifications from the National Professional Certification Board (BNSP). In the work placement in the company, PLJ has cooperated or MOU with various companies in channeling students to work.
Through the work placement program of Polytechnic LP3I Jakarta , Students can work and apply their employability skills in the company but on the other hand, there are some problems regarding Personal , Communication and Technical Skill of students. The problems are the company did not renew the work contract because of poor student performance, Students resign from work because their place of residence is far from the workplace, and lack of ability in communication in English and the ability to operate exel program. To answer these problems, LP3I Jakarta Polytechnic must know about the work abilities of students who work in the company.
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The purpose of this study is to determine the company's perspective on employability skills of PLJ students working in the company. The Employability Skill include personal skills, communication skills and technical skills.
RESEARCH METHODS Methodology
This study used quantitative methods that are analytic descriptive. In this study, researcher used 67 companies that had accepted LP3I Jakarta Polytechnic students working in these companies. Primary data in this study use questionnaire and five Likert scale.
Table 1 Variable, Indicator and Method of Measurement
Research Title Variables, Indicator Method of
Measurement
COMPANY PERCEPTION OF EMPLOYABILITY SKILL OF LP3I POLYTECHNIC STUDENTS IN JAKARTA
Assessment of Personal Skills by the
Company
1. Adaptation ability of students in the work environment in the company
2. Ability to adapt to coworkers and work teams
3. Ability to complete
the work in
accordance with the
targets and
expectations.
4. Ability to complete routine work and solve problems 5. Have high confidence 6. Ability to report work
results to superiors 7. Learn new things
quickly
8. Having a Loyalty, and Integrity at work 9. Having Creativity
and Initiative at work 10. Ability to comply with the rules, work instructions (SOP) of the company, and company culture 11. Have good ethics
QUESTIONNAIRE COMPLETED BY 67 COMPANIES USING FIVE LIKERT SCALE
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(behavior) and work ethic
Assessment of Communication Skills by the Company
1. Having the ability to communicate with superiors, and coworkers
2. Skills for teamwork 3. Ability to negotiate
and mediate
4. The ability to propose ideas
5. Ability in
presentation
6. Give a good response / response to the work given
7. Ability to understand work instructions from superiors
Assessment of Student
Technical Skills by the Company
1. Able to operate a computer (Microsoft Word & Power Point) 2. Able to operate a
Microsoft Excel 3. Ability in English
(Communication, Reading, Writing) 4. Mastering the field of
work in accordance with Job Description 5. Ability to operate
office equipment 6. Ability to do office
administration
(typing, creating letters, compiling documentation)
LITERATURE REVIEW Employabilitas (Employabilty)
Employability skills ware a specific part of what is known as generic skills.
According to Hanafi (2012) that prospective workers should have basic skills and also technical skills or skills in the field of work occupied in the world of work and prospective workers must also have employability or generic skills. Employability
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skills are the ability to work a person with various situations and have the ability to think critically, communicate effectively, and have the motivation and enthusiasm to continue learning and working. In the study of York & Knight (2004) explained that Employability Skills ware a variety of skills needed by a worker to improve work effectiveness and improve work ability.
Employability skills ware considered very important in the work because the current job requires the initiative, flexibility, and ability of a workforce to handle different tasks. That means the skills possessed by a workforce do not have to be specific, but should be more service oriented and more importantly have high social skills. According to Hanafi (2012) Employability skills include (1) basic skills which include reading, writing and arithmetic; (2) interpersonal skills which include communicating and working in teams; and (3) self-attributes which include the ability to learn and the ability to deal with changes that always occur in society.
Yorke (2006) defined that Employability Skills are a series of skills, understandings and personal attributes that are used by graduates to get jobs and be successful in their chosen jobs, which benefit themselves, labor, society and the economy.
Employability skills ware a specific part of what was more broadly known as generic skills. The International Labor Organization (ILO) defined employability skills as skills, knowledge, and competencies that can improve a person's ability or workforce to get and keep a job, develop in the workplace and can also face change, get another job if the workforce wants to quit or dismissed, he could return to the workforce easily at different times in his life cycle (Cleary et al, 2006; ).
Various countries and several institutions in the world had various terms to explain employability skills. employability skills are core skills, key skills, common skills (English); key competencies, employability skills, generic skills (Australia);
basic skills, necessary skills, workplace know-how (American); transferable skills (French); critical enabling skills (Singapore); employability skills (ASEAN); core work skills / core skills for employability (ILO) (Brewer, 2013); and soft skills (Indonesia) (DIKTI, 2008).
65 Personal Competence
Charles E. Jhonson in Wina Sanjaya (2005: 34) divided competencies into 3 parts, namely: Personal competence which is a competency related to personal development (personal competency), professional competency that is competence or ability related to completing certain tasks, and Social competencies are competencies related to social interests.
Personal competence reflected a personality that was wise, stable, mature, steady and authoritative and exemplary. Personality competencies had sub competencies which included: stable and good personality, wise personality, mature personality, authoritative personality, being an example and having good character.
Ruben & DeAngelis, (1998) explained Personal competence was a positive behavior, Motivation, Flexibility / adaptability, Integrity, Active learners, Solving, problems, Ability, making decisions, Analytical / cognitive, GPA / achievements, Academic Commitment to change, Loyalty
Communication Skills
According to Cangara (1998: 23), communication skills ware the ability of a person to convey a message to the public (recipient of the message). Meanwhile, according to Nevizond Chatab (2007: 29) that communication skills ware the ability to establish relationships through human communication channels or the media, so that the message or information can be understood properly. Communication skills ware not abilities that ware brought from birth and did not appear suddenly, skills need to be learned and trained (Supratiknya, 2003: 12)
Technical Skills
Technical skills ware the ability to carry out tasks related to technical roles such as IT, engineering, mechanics, science or finance. Typical technical skills are programming, analysis of complex figures or the use of special tools. The majority of technical skills require experience and sometimes extensive training to master.
According to Rentz, et al (2002) Technical Skill (technical expertise), was the knowledge that salespeople had in order to support sales, such as knowledge of product design and features (mastering product knowledge), knowledge of product usage and functions, technical knowledge (engineering expertise) and procedures enforced by company policy.
66 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Descriptive analysis can be done whether this research uses quantitative and qualitative methods.
Quantitative analysis in this study involved 67 respondents and data in the form of averaged interpreted are shown in Table 1 below.
Table 2 Interpretation of Levels
Mean Score Interpretation of Levels
4.21 - 5.00 Very Good 3.41 - 4.20 Good 2.61 - 3.40 Enough 1.81 - 2.60 Less 1.00 - 1.80 Not Good
Application of Student Personal Skills in the Company
Table 2 Application of Personal Competencies No APPLICATION OF PERSONAL COMPETENCE
SCORE LEVEL Category
1 Adaptation ability of students in the work environment in the company
3.87 Good 2
Ability to adapt to coworkers and work teams 3.86
Good 3 Ability to complete the work in accordance with the
targets and expectations
3.32 Enough 4
Ability to complete routine work and solve problems
3.53 Good
5 Have high confidence 3.47 Good
6 Ability to report work results to superiors 3.53 Good
7 Learn new things quickly 3.46 Good
8 Having a Loyalty, and Integrity at work 3.83 Good 9 Having Creativity and Initiative at work 3.36 Enough 10 Ability to comply with the rules, work instructions
(SOP) of the company, and company culture
3.71 Good 11 Have good ethics (behavior) and work ethic 3.64 Good
AVERAGE 3.60 Good
Table 2 shows employers 'perceptions of the level of satisfaction of the application of the personal competencies of LP3I Jakarta polytechnic students in the Company
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as follows: The level of company satisfaction with the application of students' ability to adapt to the work environment in companies with good satisfaction levels (3.87), Ability to adapt to coworkers and work teams with good satisfaction levels (3.86), Ability to complete the work in accordance with the targets and expectations with Enough satisfaction levels (3.32), Ability to complete routine work and solve problems with good satisfaction levels (3.87), Have high confidence with good satisfaction levels (3.47), Ability to report work results to superiors Learn new things quickly with good satisfaction levels (3.46), Having a Loyalty, and Integrity at work Having Creativity and Initiative at work with enough satisfaction levels (3.36), Ability to comply with the rules, work instructions (SOP) of the company, and company culture with good satisfaction levels (3.71) and Have good ethics (behavior) and work ethic with good satisfaction levels (3.64). The average level of company satisfaction with personal competence of students is 3.60 with a good level
Application of Communication Skills in the company
Table 3 Application of Communication Competencies No APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATION
COMPETENCE
SCORE LEVEL
Category
1 Having the ability to communicate with superiors, and coworkers
3.59 Good
2 Cooperating with teamwork 3.67 Good
3 Ability to negotiate and mediate 3.24 Enough
4 The ability to propose ideas 3.05 Enough
5 Ability in presentation 3.08 Enough
6 Give a good response / response to the work given 3.68 Good 7 Ability to understand work instructions from superiors 3.63 Good
AVERAGE 3.42 Good
Table 3 shows employers 'perceptions of the level of satisfaction of the application of the Communication competencies of LP3I Jakarta polytechnic students in the Company as follows: The level of company satisfaction with Having the ability to communicate with superiors and coworkers with good satisfaction
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levels (3.59), Cooperating with teamwork with good satisfaction levels (3.67), Ability to negotiate and mediate with enough satisfaction levels (3.24), The ability to propose ideas with Enough satisfaction levels (3.05), Ability in presentation with Enough satisfaction levels (3.08), Give a good response / response to the work given with good satisfaction levels (3.68) and Ability to understand work instructions from superiors with good satisfaction levels (3.63). The average level of company satisfaction with Communication competence of students is 3.42 with a good level.
Application of Technical Skills in the Workplace
Table 4 Application of Technical Competencies
No Application of Technical Skills SCORE LEVEL 1 Able to operate a computer (Microsoft Word & Power Point) 3.96 Good
2 Able to operate a Microsoft Excel 3.95 Good
3 Ability in English (Communication, Reading, Writing) 3.16 Enough 4 Mastering the field of work in accordance with Job
Description
3.66 Good
5 Ability to operate office equipment 3.87 Good
6 Ability to do office administration (typing, creating letters, compiling documentation)
3.89 Good
AVARAGE 3.75 Good
Table 4 shows employers 'perceptions of the level of satisfaction of the application of the Technical Skills of LP3I Jakarta polytechnic students in the Company as follows: The level of company satisfaction with the application of students' ability to operate a computer (Microsoft Word & Power Point) with good satisfaction levels (3.96), Able to operate a Microsoft Excel with good satisfaction levels (3.95), Ability in English (Communication, Reading, Writing) with Enough satisfaction levels (3.16), Mastering the field of work in accordance with Job Description with good satisfaction levels (3.66), Ability to operate office equipment with good satisfaction levels (3.87) and Ability to do office administration (typing, creating letters, compiling documentation) with good satisfaction levels (3.89). The
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average level of company satisfaction with Technical competence of students is 3.75 with a good level
CONCLUSION
The conclusions from the results of research on the Company Perception of Employability Skills of LP3I Jakarta polytechnic students consisting of Personal Skills, Communication Skills and Technical Skills are as follows:
a. From the results of a questionnaire towards 76 companies regarding company satisfaction with the application of students' personal skills, the Company rated it an average of 3.71 (Good) or Quite satisfactory
b. From the results of the 76 Company questionnaire regarding the application of student communication skills in the Company is good with an average criteria (3.42).
c. The results of a questionnaire towards 76 companies regarding company satisfaction with the application of Students'technical skills is 3.75 with a good level
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