UNIVERSITI TUN HUSSEIN ONN MALAYSIA

UWB 20302

TECHNICAL WRITING

SECTION: 01

SEMESTER I SESSION 2016/2017

GROUP MEMBERS:
No Name Matrix Number
1. Muhamad Fauzan Syafiq B Badarudin DD140010
2. Nur Izzaty Bt Saroman DB140126
3. Syukriah Ili Hazwani Binti Ramlee AN150173
4. Anis Suhana Bt Abdul Aziz AE140038
5. Nur Izzah Atirah Bt Jaffar Sidek AD150216

LECTURER NAME: DR. ZULIDA BINTI ABDUL KADIR

1.1 Research Background

Nowadays, student graduates are having a major problem across the country. They are not
competent to the industrial needs and most of them are already failing during their job interview.
The employers said that the graduates are lacking with leadership skills and soft skills.
Leadership skills include projects planning, managing time, motivating individuals, giving
feedback and building teams. these skills, often termed as soft skills, are considered more
important than experience or college education in defining successful youth leaders.

According to Power Skills research volunteerism develops and improves these and other critical
business skills such as problem solving, coaching/mentoring and communicating effectively. In a
study, How Volunteerism Shapes Profesional Success, conducted by Power Skills, profesional
women in a leadership capacity state they gained many leadership skills through their volunteer
activities.

Eighty-three percent of participants report that they acquired improve or develop their leadership
skills due to volunteer participation, while 78% report improvement at their communication
skills.

TABLE 1: Leadership Skills Developed/ Enhanced through Volunteerism

(Responders selected ALL that apply)

Volunteer Organizations

Social service/ Business or

Community Profesional
based
7 Culture Health- related
9
9 36 School/ General Charity/
% Education Relief Fund
11 Related
12 16 Religious

Skill Develop/ Enhanced

83 Leadership
78 Communications
62 Problem Solving
60 Public Speaking
57 Organization/ Multitasking
54 Financial/ Budget/Accounting
53 Coaching/ Mentoring
53 Meeting Planning
26 Human Resource Management
17 Interview/Hiring
17 Research

Based on the Utusan Malaysia 10/10/10 page 19, it is stated that the young generation needs to
be in the spirit of volunteerism in order to make their minds rugged and resilient to face future
challenges. Tengku Mahkota of Pahang, Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah said that the
volunteering spirit needs to be in every students. He explained that the research done by the
University of Maryland, United States of America, 1992 found that the number of students
interested in volunteering activity has declined. Various reasons given by them as there is no time
and they want to focus solely on their studies. The studies also revealed that female students are
more interested to involve with volunteering work compared to the male students.

Based on Higher Education Ministry of Malaysia

Definition of soft skills (adapted from soft skills development module for Institution of Higher
Learning Malaysia, Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia 2006)

Soft skills are critical element in the globalized working world, particularly in the light of rapid
technology advancement. thus, soft skills element need to be embedded and assessed in teaching
and learning in the line with the student-centered learning approached soft skills element selected
from the KPT module are follows:

1. Communication Skills (CS)

2. Critical Thinking And Problem Solving (CT PS)
3. Teamwork Skills (TS)
4. Lifelong Learning and Informational Management (LL)
5. Entrepreneurship Skills (ES)
6. Ethics and Moral Profesional (EM)
7. Leadership Skills (LS)
Lastly, we would like to study and conduct a survey to the University of Tun Hussein Onn
Malaysia (UTHM) students from different year and different courses available. We want to
investigate whether volunteering are able to provide and develop the UTHM students with good
value of soft skills or not.

1.2 Problem Statement

The college admissions is enough stressful. Besides that, students study tirelessly to keep an
appealing GPA, trudge through hours of standardized testing and find the time to attend a
hundred club meetings in a week. Because of that, they do not have time to devote their last few
spare hours doing volunteer works.

Other reasons why people do not volunteer is because most student do not have time to volunteer
maybe due to the fact that they a lazy, working or ignorant. Ignorant mean that they do not know
how to get involved in community service and some do not believe and understand the purpose
of the project when they are asked to volunteer. At one point, some students get a bad experience
in their volunteer services, like they get burnt out or maybe they did volunteer and did not get
one thank you or felt as if they were not appreciated for their service. This makes them
discouraged and not want to volunteer anymore.

Meanwhile volunteering it is very important because volunteerism adapt the students with
valuable skills, knowledge and practical experience that cannot be achieved from academic
studies alone and therefore gives a more rounded student experience, valuable transferable skills
and the opportunity to interact with the community in which they live. Whether youre helping
out at your local library or tutoring underprivileged kids, volunteering allows you to experience
different environment and situations.

Volunteering also gives student the chance to show and improve their soft skills, those attributes
that define their ability to work well with other people and it is also requires them to empathize
with people and to understand their needs. When go for a job interview, having student
volunteering work on their CV is always a bonus. No matter which or what industry their
applying to, employers always like to see part of your wider personality and what you really care
about besides your studies.