Study on the Effectiveness of Computer Application Course to the Polytechnics Students in the Working Environment

Malaysia Polytechnic Transformation Program was launched to improve the quality of vocational and technical education in Malaysia and form a quality human capital capable of increasing productivity significantly. Human capital that produced should be the ICT literacy groups and will contribute to the needs of industry. Hence, Computer Application course that offered to the students must be revised from time to time and updated content to fulfill the needs of industry. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relevance of Computer Application course to the polytechnic graduates from the perceptions view of students and employers. Review and survey involved 375 students who have completed their six months industrial training and was continue study in the final semester currently on five polytechnics which have been identified through cluster sampling and purposive sampling. In order to get the perception of the employers, convenient sampling was used in this study. The instruments used are two sets of questionnaires adapted from University Putra Malaysia, the Exit Survey for Graduating Students and Stakeholders Survey for Outcome Based Education (OBE) - Industry / Employer / Alumni developed by Professor Dato Ir. Dr. Radin Umar Radin Sohadi. The pilot test obtained the Alpha Cronbach value of 0.962. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation, and percentage. Through this study, the highest mean value on attributes of the graduate attainment is derived from students’ perceptions is Lifelong Learning and information management, which was 3.74. Next, the research showed the lowest mean value of 3.60 on the thinking and scientific skills approach. The findings also show that the perception of the employers on polytechnic graduates that they have the ability to apply their knowledge of computer literacy into careers with the highest mean value of 4.20. However, only 52% of employers give opinion that’s Polytechnic graduates are able to act as a manager / leader with a mean value of 3.36. The findings also showed that 96% of employer agrees that BC101 course is relevant and fulfills market needs.