Rahim M. Sail

Social Skills and Social Values Training for Future K-Workers.

Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of acquisition of knowledge on social skills and social values by trainers of institutes and coaches of industries in training of trainers (ToT) programmes. It has been ascertained that social skills and social values can and must be taught to apprentices to enhance their employability skills as well as to remove any barriers for upward mobility in their careers.Design/methodology/approach – A four‐day ToT‐cum‐workshop was organized using “hands‐on” experiential outdoor learning activities with lots of interactions, discussions and reflections between participants and participants, and between participants and facilitators. A retrospective post‐ then‐pre‐evaluation design was employed to determine the amount of knowledge acquired by the participants using a four point Likert‐type statements. Using the Handbook of Social Skills and Social Values as a guide, eight core social skills and eight core social values that were relevant to NDTS we...

Exploring career success of late bloomers from the TVET background

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore objective and subjective career success and to identify factors contributing to career success among a sample of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) “late bloomers” working in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approach – Incorporating a mixed method design, the authors quantitatively surveyed 86 TVET graduates from two multinational companies, followed by in‐depth qualitative interviews with five high‐performing “late bloomer” TVET graduates.Findings – Quantitative results indicate that the respondents progressed in their careers both in terms of salary and promotions, while most were satisfied with their careers and felt that they were internally and externally marketable. Qualitative findings indicate that the success of the late bloomers was the result of a perceived good fit between an individuals strengths and the organizations ability to compensate, motivate and support the individuals in their career progression.Research limitations/i...