Author(s): Erlane K. Ghani, Rosdiana Rappa, Ardi Gunardi
One factor contributing to the rising rate of unemployment among graduates in Malaysia is the lack of soft skills. Although the government has made it compulsory for all universities to include soft skills in their formal and informal curriculum in educating their students, there are still complaints from the employers with regards to the lack of soft skills among the graduates. This study examines the employers' perceived soft skills of the accounting graduates. This study also determines whether there is a difference in perception of accounting graduates’ soft skills between the employers in the private sector and the employers in the public sector. Using survey questionnaire on 187 employers in the private and public sectors, the results show that the employers chose teamwork skill as the most important skill that the accounting graduates should possess. The results also show a significant difference on the perception of accounting graduates’ soft skills between the employers in the private sector and the employers in the public sector in terms of lifelong learning and information management. The finding in this study implicates the need for the universities to enhance their syllabus and program structure in order to provide the accounting graduates with employability skills.