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International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

Open Access Journal

ISSN: 2222-6990

Covid-19: Employer Demand from Quantity Surveyor’s Graduates towards Employability Skills

Nor Atiqah Mustapa, Rozana Mohamed Salleh, Nur Athierah Ashman, Mas Idayu Saidi, Nur Syafiqah A. Rahim

http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v12-i8/14480

Open access

Employability skills are a set of skills that have been identified as a fundamental element for graduate to secure and maintain jobs. Due to COVID-19, many people have lost their jobs including experienced employees. Thus, it is predicted that future graduates would face difficulties in securing employment. This is because long before the pandemic of COVID-19 occurred, the issue of unemployment among graduates already existed. Now with the pandemic, the situation could get worse. Therefore, objective of this study was to examine quantity surveyor graduate employability skills that are demanded by quantity surveyor consultant firm in the pandemic COVID-19 situation. This research employed a quantitative approach. A set of questionnaires has been distributed to registered quantity surveyor consultant firms in Selangor. The findings revealed that most employers would prefer to have a candidate with soft skills more than hard skills. Graduates are required to have soft skills such as Being capable to adapt with changes, having a positive attitude, and being flexible. However, that does not mean that hard skill or technical skill is not important in quantity surveyor securing a job. It is just that it is less demanded as all graduates are expected to already have the skills. The findings are useful for improving quantity surveyor graduates’ understanding of the employability skills perceived as being most important in seeking a job. For further research, it would be good to expand the study to include the contractor’s perspective since this study only focuses on consultant firms. This is due to the fact that the role of quantity surveyors in consultant firms and contractors are different.

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In-Text Citation: (Mustapa et al., 2022)
To Cite this Article: Mustapa, N. A., Salleh, R. M., Ashman, N. A., Saidi, M. I., & Rahim, N. S. A. (2022). Covid-19: Employer Demand from Quantity Surveyor’s Graduates towards Employability Skills. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(8), 1409 – 1419.