EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS OF MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS FOR IR4.0: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Employability skills in the industry is an essential aspect of education. The increasing unemployment trend which is occurring in numerous countries including Malaysia, shows a skills mismatch between education and the industry. The researchers predicted the expansion of this gap to appear during Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0). Hence, this research investigates the reasons for unemployment among university students in Malaysia with special reference to relevant employability skills for IR4.0. This study mainly used existing research published between 2017 to 2022. Three databases, namely Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, were used to search for articles using the following keywords: employability skills, unemployment, IR4.0. The inclusion criteria was used to select the relevant articles published in English. This study used the PRISMA methodology to conduct a systematic literature review. The analysis included 47 papers. This study found a significant association between skill mismatch and unemployment. This research also found 15 employability skills and four skills related to IR4.0: soft skills, hard skills, information literacy, and attitude. This research recommends that educational institutions consider these skills and update the curriculum and instructional technologies in line with the vision of IR4.0.