Benefits of Industrial Training to Engineering Students M.Z.OMAR*, N.T. KOFLI, K. MAT, Z.M.DARUS, S.A. OSMAN, M.N.A. RAHMAN S. ABDULLAH AND A. ZAHARIM Faculty of Engineering Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 43600, UKM Bangi, Selangor MALAYSIA Abstract: - This paper discusses the perception of engineering students from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia on Industrial Training program. Their opinion on benefits and disadvantages of the program is studied. A total of 385 students were chosen from 5 different departments. They were asked various questions related to ‘attitude’, ‘communication’ and ‘work attitude’ before and after undergoing industrial training, and advantages of industrial training on improving their job prospect, qualification and career guidance. In general, before undergoing industrial training, the students feel they are lack in ‘communication’ skills as it shows only 45% of satisfactory level. For ‘work attitude’ and ‘attitude’, the satisfactory level reached 56% and 70% respectively. However, after undergoing industrial training, the percentages increased to 83%, 92% and 97% respectively. The students also agreed that the industrial training is beneficial giving satisfactory levels of 88% for job prospect, 88% for qualification and 94% on job guidance. Key-Words: - industrial training, attitude, communication, work attitude 1 Introduction The industrial training program at the Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (a.k.a. National University of Malaysia) is carried out for the duration of two months after the students have completed at least six (6) full time academic semesters for an Engineering programme or four (4) full time academic semesters for Architecture programme. This industrial training is compulsory for all students as required by the Board of Engineers Malaysia through Malaysian Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) [1]. They were placed at various agencies from government to private sectors which covers 13 different types of industries. The study was conducted after the students have completed their training. The duration of the training was from 7 th May 2007 to 6 th July 2007. The objectives of the industrial training are to expose the students to the engineering practice which is specific to their course specialisation and to the nature of the industry selected; to expose the students to the responsibility of an engineer and the engineering profession; and to develop the students’ communication skills that include daily interaction within the working environment and technical writing. Thus, the survey was conducted to evaluate : (a) students’ perception on ‘attitude’, ‘work attitude’ and ‘communication’ aspect before undergoing industrial training (b) students’ perception on ‘attitude’, ‘work attitude’ and ‘communication’ aspect after undergoing industrial training (c) students’ perception on advantages of industrial training There are 5 departments in the faculty. They are Civil Engineering and Structure (JKAS); Electric, Electronic Engineering and System (JKEES); Chemical Engineering and Process (JKKP); Mechanical Engineering and Materials Department (JKMB) and Architecture (JSB). 2 Research Methodology: The research was conducted after the students have completed their training. A total of 385 students were involved from the five different departments purposedly using convenience sampling based on firms where engineering students undergoing their training. The data collection was carried out using a set of questionnaires. The evaluation was set on 5-point Likert Scale given as 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 that is interpreted as ‘not 5th WSEAS / IASME International Conference on ENGINEERING EDUCATION (EE'08), Heraklion, Greece, July 22-24, 2008 ISBN: 978-960-6766-86-2 408 ISSN: 1790-2769