READY FOR THE WORKPLACE? ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERACY SKILLSAMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN MALAYSIA

A new living landscape is emerging where economic, social, and technological transformations are altering every aspect of contemporary workplace settings. The everevolving new media technologies and the rising demands for high performance knowledge workers pose tremendous challenges lo students who want to be seen as literate and ready to function fruitfully in the workplace. This article looks a/final year students in public institutions of higher learning in Malaysia and their readiness to enter the global workplace in the digital age. The findings show that the students believe literacy are ready where they are competent in several aspects of literacy skills like communication skills and working with multicultural groups. However, the students seem to be facing great difficulty in English language amid leadership skills. By way of conclusion, this paper argues for serious attention and a framework for action that coordinates action the effort of the Government of Malaysia and other interested partners to improve literacy levels to ensure that Malaysian students graduating from public institutions of higher learning can thrive and contribute to the globalizing workplace.