Addressing the Literacy Skills of B40 Students towards 4IR Workplace: Development of FutureProof Graduate Module (FPGM)

It has been the aspiration of most Malaysian higher learning institutions to produce holistic and balanced graduates that are highly competent to suit the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Despite their increasing efforts, various issues concerning local graduates' lack of critical thinking, communication skills and English literacy remain unsettled. This study aims to examine the literacy skills of a large number of students at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), who are considered as `at-risk' students, given their background from the B40 category while they also obtained a low level of English proficiency (MUET Band 1-3). It intends to examine their existing literacy skills in relation to the required skills of the 4IR including communication, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), technology literacy, problem solving and teamwork. This study employed a qualitative research method incorporating secondary data and data collated from an online survey. It is expected to contribute to the enhancement of body of knowledge on Malaysian graduates' employability for the 4IR. It is hoped that the Future-Proof Graduate Module (FPGM) that will be developed from this study will intensify the employability prospects of all students from the B40 category.