An evaluation of the competencies, skills and knowledge of Quantity Surveying graduates in consultant Quantity Surveying firms in Malaysia

A significant proportion of graduate quantity surveyors serving Quantity Surveying (QS) firms in Malaysia are produced by the local higher institutions of learning. Upon employment, employers expect them to be behaviorally and technically competent to participate and undertake the range of quantity surveying tasks. Whilst the academic programs offered by the universities and colleges are commonly designed to be recognised and accredited by the Board of Quantity Surveyors Malaysia (BQSM) and/or the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the courses tends to be designed and delivered variably between universities and colleges. This in-turn tends to result in graduates bringing different levels of competencies into their job. Conceiving the significance of understanding this phenomenon for the Malaysian higher education and the construction industry, a research was mooted to ascertain the level of competencies that the QS graduates from the Malaysian higher education bring into their employment. The aim was to assess the extent to which the QS higher education provision was able to meet the employment needs and the variable levels of competencies produced by the QS higher education providers. A knowledge and skills framework was developed and data was sought from employers of graduates from these higher education institutions. The results suggest that, in the main, graduates from each of these institutions tend to be more competent in some aspects of technical and behavioral competencies then some other. Tangible comparison can also be made to compare the competencies of graduates between these institutions from the research. These provided useful insights for employers to appreciate which graduates from which institution is competent in what. The findings can also be served as a key reference for the institutions to moot academic improvement initiatives.