In my first semester of year one in doing my degree, I've got the opportunity to learn the course of Graduate Success Attributes with Dr. Teh Zaharah Yaacob. The course has been very useful for me, because it provides essential keys in becoming a graduate with a top quality of attributes.
First and foremost, I learned different attributes that a graduate should have to increase employability in the future. Through the task given in each weekly class for each different topic, I manage to obtain a new way of thinking to comprehend the objectives behind each of those topics. For instance, the tasks that had been given were reflection essay, quizzes and virtual webinar. These activities made the class so special and lively for me as a university student because it used different approaches to make students understand the lessons.
The very first attribute, which was communication skill, was delivered by Professor Ts. Dr. Rose Alinda Alias. In that asynchronous lecture on 2 November 2021, I had learned to communicate in an effective way. This is important because effective communication means the message you want others to hear is well delivered. That is why communication does not only involve verbal method but also non-verbal, written, interpersonal and visual communication. To be able to communicate in a good way between two or more parties, speaking and listening must be taken into account because conversation is always in two paths flow. From the lecture, I have tried to improve my communication skill to make myself more referable in a society.
On the next two weeks, which was on 23 November 2021, I had watched an offline video from Professor Datuk Ir. TS. Dr. Mohd Jailani Mohd Noor explaining about critical thinking skills. From that, I came to acknowledge that it is divided six main components which are interpretation, analysis, inferences, explanation, evaluation and self regulation. This skill is very crucial to graduates because it needs us to reflect on our knowledge and information given in order to make a judgement. This skill is applied daily in our life and we need to master it so that we, as graduates-to-be, can utilise it in every aspect of our life.
Since I was from a boarding school, I think I have the criteria that have been described in a live lecture about adaptability skill on 21 December 2021. I can simply live anywhere, with new people and surrounding although it might feel very different. That's what life is about for me. To go on adventures and create new experience, which starts from adaptability skill.
Next, I had never thought that scholarship skill was a thing until I learned it from Professor Dr. Zaidatun Tasir on 26 October 2021 via her Facebook live. She taught me that for every source found on the internet or literally anywhere, a citation must be done in order to verify its validity. I learned some types of citations to help me cite all the other projects in different courses. Then, we were given task to write a scholarly article found in the UTM's Library to help us apply the knowledge we had learned. From there, I realized the meaning behind integrity and that's why scholarship skill is important to us.
On 4 January 2022, besides learning about teamworking skill, I had also been exposed to global citizenship skill. It is essentially a skill to see world from a different perspectives. It plays an important part in our life where this skill helps us to see the unseen part of the world, hence to accept any diversity and respect each other. We must start off by understanding the complexity of global issues to then contribute to other communities in this world. We must relate it to other attributes, such as critical thinking skill to reach the maximum level of thinking for the sake of this beloved world.
On the other hand, I learned one of the most common attributes that we usually get fed as students going into a higher level. It is none other than teamworking attribute. It may be common, though, but it is still hardly applied by graduates nowadays. To make everything clear, we were asked to describe a leader that we admire on 30 November 2021 and I chose Abraham Lincoln for it. Later on 4 January 2022, inaugural lecture by Prof. Datuk Ir. Dr. Wahid was presented to us. From his sharing, I learned that everyone can be a leader but not everyone can be a good leader, even towards themselves. It is because the responsibility of being a great leader should never be considered as a burden, but we need to take it as a challenge instead. For me, I came to a conclusion where I am still not a good leader and need to work harder to achieve that.
Last but not least, I learned the value of having enterprising skill on 16 November 2021. It was a sharing from Associate. Prof. Dr. Siti Hamidah Mohd Setapar. We were asked to produce a video explaining at least 5 entrepreneurship skills to test on our understanding. I felt lucky to have learned this topic in more details during my foundation in UTMSPACE. I had also ran a dropship business during that period. All I can say is, enterprising skill is underestimated because once you learn it, you will get the importance that you might have never thought about before.