DIGITAL CAPABILITIES IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT: EMPLOYERS' VIEW ON MALAYSIAN YOUTH CAPABILITIES

Abstract

Malaysia's initiative towards a digital economy has further boosted the industry players to expedite the effort in restructuring the organisation's development plan by interjecting digital technology such as the Internet of Things, Big Data, Cloud Computing, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) as part of their business trajectories in creating competitive advantage. As digital development accelerates and provides extensive benefits in improving an organisation's efficiency and reputation, employers shifted their needs in hiring digital talents that can integrate digital technologies with daily tasks. The younger generation, who are more 'digital natives’ than the senior workers, should have greater employment opportunities in line with the digital economic movement. However, the high unemployment rate of the young graduates in Malaysia shows a stark increase, raise to the critical question of whether the young graduates possess the actual capabilities that employers need in the digital environment or otherwise. Therefore, this study aims to explore a more nuanced and complex understanding of the actual digital capabilities deem to be relevant in the Malaysian employment market, considering employers' opinions and experience in hiring graduates. This study will employ a qualitative, netnography research method in collecting the data by using online interviews. The rationale of employing the netnography method is deemed relevant since the pandemic restricting the movement to collect data face-to-face. This study will gain employers' experience and opinions on the graduates' capabilities specifically, digital capabilities, capturing employers' expectations on graduates' capabilities that make the graduates qualified for employment. The employers will be the one that holds the authority in hiring decisions and must be working with the organisations that heavily rely on the use of digital technology in their business operations. The findings of this study heavily impacted on improving the young graduates' employability in the digital environment, provides a broader perspective to the universities in structuring digital-related syllabus across various course programmes. The government can play its role by providing ideas to formulate an appropriate digital plan that is more specific to young people according to graduates' capacity that is more 'digital native', in accordance to the rapid technological development. The results of this study will contribute in terms of socio-economic aspects to form 'employable graduates.