Proceedings of the 2 nd Tourism and Hospitality International Conference (THIC 2014) 18 DEVELOPING MALAYSIAN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY GRADUATES COMPETENCY INDEX N. M. Shariff, N. M. Nor, N. Zainol and K. Kayat School of Tourism, Hospitality & Environmental Management, College of Law, Government & International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia ABSTRACT The current study develops an index of tourism and hospitality graduates competencies specifically for the case of Malaysian graduates. The process involved four major stages begins with the competencies generation from the literature search, follows by the competencies verification, then the test for reliability and finally the index development. The competencies generation ended up with 73 competencies while the verification which involved 30 experts in the tourism and hospitality industry indicated 40 competencies to be further tested. The reliability test involved a pilot study of 116 respondents and the findings indicated all competencies have high alpha value above 0.5 and were included to be tested for factor analysis in the index development stage. The index of Malaysian tourism and hospitality graduates‘ competencies consists of eight domains namely Management and Technology Competencies, Leadership Competencies, Organizational Competencies, Personal Effectiveness Competencies, Business-Oriented Competencies, Self-Oriented Competencies, Customer Related Competencies and Innovative Competencies. The index has gone through a systematic process in developing such a tool and significantly contributes to the identification and selection of quality graduates to serve within the tourism and hospitality environment. Keywords: index, tourism, hospitality, graduate, Malaysia Introduction Today, the tourism and hospitality education in Malaysia is tremendously developed to produce quality graduates to fulfill the industry needs (Zahari, Hanafiah, Othman, Jamaluddin & Zulkifli, 2010). With the increasing demand for tourism and hospitality graduates, several educational institutions in the country have established the program by giving vital attention to the competencies required by the industry for instance Universiti Teknologi MARA, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Taylor‘s University College, Begi University College, Damansara Utama College and Limkokwing University of Creative Technology. In addition, two hotel sectors are also offering full time and short courses for the tourism and hospitality namely Berjaya University College and Legend International College. It is agreeable that the tourism and hospitality education programs must have specialized courses which provide students with specific interest area in the industry complying with the Accreditation Commission for Programs in Hospitality Administration (ACPHA) 1992. With so many institutions in Malaysia offering the program, the quality of the curriculum structure has become major issue in the tourism and hospitality education. The industry wants to recruit graduates who are excellent both in theory and practice which eventually reflects the competencies provided by the educational institutions. Therefore, the competencies required by the industry need to be compiled into the curriculum as to produce quality graduates. Thus, a study was conducted to develop a standard index as indicator to measure the competencies of tourism and hospitality graduates in line with the industry requirements. Overview of the Literature A competency or abilities and skills model is defined as an integrating education and training, aligning both with the needs of the labor market and promoting mobility for individuals (Van der Klink & Boon, 2002; Delamare Le Deist & Winterton, 2005). Various models of competencies are being developed for the purpose of producing qualified graduates. A Competencies Value Framework (CVF) developed by Quinn, Thompson, Faerman and McGrath (2003) offers an opportunity to examine key managerial skills and competencies based on organizational theory. It is also considered versatile to be applied to all industry sectors as it takes a more general approach to management competencies and skills necessary for managers to be effective. Moreover, an