Malaysian Engineering Students' Perception on Industrial Training

This paper reports Malaysian engineering students’ perception on industrial training in terms of the management of industrial training, students’ change, students’ future career and their readiness to be engineers at their workplace. The perception of 311 engineering students from three institutions who have completed the industrial training was measured using a set of questionnaire. The results show that, the overall perception of the students is at a moderate level where the most negative level of perception is on the students’ future career. The institution that provides longer duration of industrial training produces more positive students’ perception all the components measured in this study. The results of the study showed that if the industrial training outcome is for preparing students for the workplace, there might be a need for universities that practice a 12-week of industrial training to consider lengthening the duration in order to prepare the students for their future career.

[1]  Craig Cameron,et al.  WIL and Generic Skill Development: The Development of Business Students' Generic Skills Through Work-Integrated Learning , 2011 .

[2]  Gregory F. Lorenz,et al.  A study of outcomes-oriented student reflection during internship: The integrated, coordinated, and reflection based model of learning and experiential education , 2010 .

[3]  Jouni Hirvonen,et al.  The Significance of Practical Training in Linking Theoretical Studies with Practice , 2006 .

[4]  Shepherd Dhliwayo,et al.  Experiential learning in entrepreneurship education: A prospective model for South African tertiary institutions , 2008 .

[5]  Sariwati Mohd Shariff,et al.  Learning in an industrial practicum training program: a case study in a public university in Malaysia , 2010 .

[6]  Julie Q. Morrison,et al.  Steps to evaluating a statewide internship program: Model, trainee, and student outcomes , 2009 .

[7]  D. Kolb,et al.  Experiential Learning Theory: A Dynamic, Holistic Approach to Management Learning, Education and Development , 2009 .

[8]  S. Renganathan,et al.  Students’ perception of industrial internship programme , 2012 .

[9]  Klaus Henning,et al.  Mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University: professional curriculum development and teacher training , 2007 .

[10]  Siti Aminah Osman,et al.  The Effectiveness of Industrial Training on UKM Engineering Students , 2011 .

[11]  Jeanne Allen,et al.  Stakeholders’ perspectives of the nature and role of assessment during practicum , 2011 .

[12]  Peter J. Smith Workplace Learning and Flexible Delivery , 2003 .

[13]  Harm H. Tillema Authenticity in knowledge productive learning of teams , 2007 .

[14]  John R. Tanner,et al.  The Relation of College Internships, College Performance, and Subsequent Job Opportunity. , 1999 .