Aligning Malaysian Art and Design Education with Industry Competencies: Research-in-Progress

From the economic perspective, art and design education promote innovation, creativity, and skills that propel economic development by producing a workforce fit for the creative sectors that support many industries. To meet industry standards, art and design students need cognitive, emotional, and psychomotor skills. This paper discusses the research in progress and secondary data findings on art and design education, design skills and competencies of art and design students and their employability potential. As one of essential tools for sustained socio-economic growth, a continual revision of art and design curricula is important in order to make sure that ‘creative industries’ in line with the current demand to support economic, industries, and nation development in the society. Furthermore, most importantly, there was not adequate research on Malaysian art and design employability as it is crucial for this field to be sustained and aligned with the government initiatives on labour demand. The Graduate Employability Strategic Plan 2021–2025 and the Job Creation Strategic Plan 2020–2023 address the imbalance between graduates and labour market demands to support the RMK12 policy objectives and provide the resilient and highly skilled workforce the industry needs. Furthermore, the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) four (4) and eight (8) underscore the importance of technical and vocational skills for both productive employment and economic growth in Malaysia. This conceptual paper details a research plan or proposal outlining research objectives, methodology, a literature review, and expected outcomes that will be obtained from the graduates, academias and industries.