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Financial literacy (FL) helps individuals make more assertive and efficient financial decisions. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the dimensions of FL as pertaining to low-income or Bottom 40% (B40) households in Malaysia. Therefore, the present study examined the reliability and validity of the B40 financial literacy measurement scale. A self-administered survey questionnaire was employed. The sample consisted of 100 respondents randomly selected from B40 households in Johor, Malaysia. The analysis was carried out through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) via IBM-SPSS version 22.0 software. To measure the FL constructs, the study initially developed 59 items; however, six items were deleted as the factor loading was below the 0.50 cut-off point, while 53 items were retained as their factor loading was more than 0.50. Because the study validates the dimension that leads to improved FL, the findings are particularly beneficial to Malaysian B40 households who have been identified as the most vulnerable group; the findings will help action to be taken to improve the FL levels of B40 households.

Alleviating household economic fragility and poverty is a global challenge in achieving a nation’s well-being. This study aims to examine the impact of social capital and Indonesian household economic welfare, as well as understand the mediating role of entrepreneurial, digital, and financial literacy. To address this objective, a structural equation modeling partial least square was adopted to acquire comprehend findings. The survey data were gathered from households in East Java of Indonesia using a simple random sampling approach. The findings from this study highlight that social capital significantly influences several literacies of households in Indonesia, including digital literacy, financial literacy, and entrepreneurial literacy. However, this study failed to confirm the nexus between social capital and household economic welfare. In addition, financial literacy, digital literacy, and entrepreneurial literacy all play an important role in mediating the connection between social capital and the economic welfare of households.

Financial literacy contributes to the economic well-being of every country. Specifically, the financial literacy level of low-income households is crucial in the process of developing and building economic potential. Moreover, the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of families are essential to the financial sustainability and money-wise behavior of low-income households. Thus, financial literacy and financial well-being are vital for low-income households to survive in highly competitive marketplaces and sustain their socioeconomic status. This study intends to examine the impact of financial literacy on the socioeconomic status of low-income households. A self-administered survey questionnaire was employed, and the sample consists of 282 randomly selected respondents from low-income households in Malaysia. The data were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modelling procedure in IBM-SPSS-AMOS 26.0 to examine the causal effect. The results showed that financial literacy (consisting of financial knowledge, financial behavior, and financial attitudes) has a positive and significant impact on the socioeconomic status of low-income households. Moreover, financial well-being also mediated the effect of financial literacy on socioeconomic status. The research results provide new ideas and perspectives for improving money-wise mechanisms and the socioeconomic sustainability of low-income households.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are aware of the need to implement proper supply chain management practices, especially to maintain good relationships with their suppliers. Previous studies indicated that a close relationship between SME owner-managers and suppliers can avail various benefits, such as operations and performance improvement, smooth delivery of goods and services to final destinations, and better negotiation of price and delivery schedule. Thus, this paper presents an understanding of the relationship between an SME in the food industry and its suppliers. By employing the Social Exchange Theory (SET) as the underlying theory, this study highlighted the importance of SMEs in managing relationships with suppliers. This study also revealed the roles that factors, such as trust, communication, commitment, and bargaining power, play in the SME-supplier relationship. By employing qualitative methodology and single case study method, this study indicated that this SME is aware that maintaining a good relationship with suppliers can lead to the survival of the business for a longer period of time, and enable them to benefit in terms of cost, quality, and services in the future. Among all factors, loyalty under the commitment factor is considered to be not unduly important to maintain the relationship with the suppliers by the SME owner-manager. However, trust and communication are the most crucial factors to maintain this relationship.

Hasrat kerajaan untuk merapatkan jurang pendidikan dalam kalangan rakyat Malaysia adalah melalui Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia dengan menyediakan pendidikan kepada semua warganegara tanpa mengira latar belakang. Namun begitu, masalah dalam pendidikan khususnya keciciran pelajar kerap berlaku dan semakin membimbangkan di semua peringkat pengajian. Sehubungan dengan itu, kertas konsep ini bertujuan memperincikan beberapa faktor yang telah dikenal pasti sebagai penyumbang berlakunya keciciran dalam pendidikan. Faktor disebabkan oleh sosioekonomi keluarga, personaliti pelajar dan faktor luaran seperti budaya dan persekitaran, pengaruh rakan sebaya serta cara pengajaran guru telah dikenal pasti sebagai antara punca keciciran pelajar. Oleh itu, langkah- langkah mengatasi berlakunya keciciran turut diperincikan berdasarkan kajian lepas. Justeru, pelbagai langkah telah diambil oleh semua pihak terutamanya guru, sekolah, kementerian mahupun kerajaan dalam membendung penularan masalah ini. Antaranya adalah tingkatkan kesedaran ibu bapa, motivasi dan minat pelajar serta mempelbagaikan gaya pengajaran untuk menarik minat pelajar supaya tidak tercicir.

Modal manusia berpengetahuan dan berkemahiran merupakan indikator penggerak kepada perkembangan ekonomi negara. Justeru itu, institusi pendidikan memainkan peranan penting dalam penyediaan perkhidmatan pendidikan untuk melahirkan produk modal manusia seperti mana yang dikehendaki oleh industri. Tujuan kajian dijalankan adalah untuk membuat penilaian perkhidmatan pendidikan dalam kalangan pelajar aliran Pendidikan dan Latihan Teknikal dan Vokasional (TVET) di IPTA dalam aspek penerimaan dan perbandingan kepuasan perkhidmatan pendidikan berdasarkan demografi jantina. Populasi kajian yang dilibatkan seramai 6252 orang pelajar dengan saiz sampel seramai 448 sampel. Kajian ini melibatkan kaedah pensampelan rawak berstrata dengan menggunakan instrumen soal selidik sebagai kaedah pengumpulan data. Kebolehpercayaan instrumen adalah baik pada nilai alfa Cronbach = 0.887 bagi kualiti perkhidmatan institusi pengajian dan nilai alfa Cronbach = 0.918 bagi kualiti perkhidmatan latihan dan amali. Analisis deskriptif yang dilibatkan adalah min, peratusan dan kekerapan manakala analisis inferensi melibatkan pengujian MANOVA sehala. Hasil dapatan menunjukkan tahap kepuasan perkhidmatan pendidikan yang sederhana dan tidak terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan kepuasan perkhidmatan pendidikan berdasarkan demografi jantina. Penemuan kajian jelas menunjukkan bahawa IPTA perlu meningkatkan keberkesanan pelaburan dalam perkhidmatan pendidikan yang ditawarkan dalam usaha mempromosikan pendidikan tinggi di negara ini. Kata kunci: Jantina, kepuasan perkhidmatan pendidikan, pendidikan tinggi, penilaian, TVET ABSTRACT A knowledgeable and skilled human capital is a driving indicator of the country's economic development. Hence, educational institutions play an important role in the provision of educational services to produce human capital products as required by industry. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the educational services among Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) university students in terms of acceptance and delivery satisfaction based on gender demographic. The study population involved 6,252 students with a 448 sample size. This study involved random stratified method, and questionnaires were used to collect data. The reliability of the instrument is good as Cronbach's alpha value = 0.887 for the quality of the institution's services and the alpha value of Cronbach = 0.918 for the training and practical service quality. Descriptive analysis involved mean, percentage and frequency while inference analysis involved one-way MANOVA testing. The finding shows that the level of satisfaction of education services is moderate and there is no significant difference in satisfaction of educational services based on gender demographic. The findings clearly show that the universities need to increase the effectiveness of investment in education services offered in the efforts to promote higher education in the country. Keywords: Assessment, education services satisfaction, gander, higher education, TVET Cite as: Abd Majid, M. Z., Hussin, M., & Norman, M. H. (2019). Kepuasan pelajar terhadap perkhidmatan pendidikan teknikal dan latihan vokasional (TVET) di rangkaian universiti teknikal Malaysia [Learner satisfaction of service quality in technical vocational education and training (TVET) in Malaysian technical universities]. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 4(2), 410-428. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol4iss2pp410-428

This paper describes the user analysis of a newly proposed blended learning module for Research Methodology, specifically for postgraduate programmes. Blended learning for Research Methodology course is a first interdisciplinary modules introduced in Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) for an innovative teaching method for all program (Business, IT and Engineering). This study was exploratory and interpretative in nature, using a qualitative research design to investigate the users’ needs in blended learning. Drawing from instructional design of ADDIE model, interviews with new postgraduate students have been carried out to explore their needs and expectations. Findings reveal learning environment, users' knowledge, learning motivation and duration time appear significant in the user analysis of Research Methodology blended learning course. The study findings will act as an input for the next stages of Research Methodology module development. The user analysis enables deep understanding on the users’ needs and in turn may improve students’ learning experience in blended learning course.

Entering the fourth industrial revolution, many crucial changes took place in the developing economies, especially in the context of the job market. Higher education institution plays an important role in generating labours resources outputs in order to fulfil the demand of the potentials labour in the job market. Hence, strategy in the success of the workforce at the institution of education needs to improve the employability skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the graduates' employability skills among students of Public Higher Education Institution (IPTA) in Malaysia based on demography (gender, location and parental education). In addition, this study also attempts to examine the influencing factors such as endurance force, time management, research experience and activities involvement at university against employability skills. The sample of the study involved 554 undergraduate students in IPTA. The findings show that result on location demographics found significant differences at value t = 3.62 and Sig. = 0.001 (P

Accidents resulting in widespread dispersal of radioactive materials have given rise to a need for materials that are convenient in allowing individual dose assessment. The present study examines natural Dead Sea salt adopted as a model thermoluminescence dosimetry system. Samples were prepared in two different forms, loose-raw and loose-ground, subsequently exposed to 60Co gamma-rays, delivering doses in the range 2–10 Gy. Key thermoluminescence (TL) properties were examined, including glow curves, dose response, sensitivity, reproducibility and fading. Glow curves shapes were found to be independent of given dose, prominent TL peaks for the raw and ground samples appearing in the temperature ranges 361–385 oC and 366–401 oC, respectively. The deconvolution of glow curves has been undertaken using GlowFit, resulting in ten overlapping first-order kinetic glow peaks. For both sample forms, the integrated TL yield displays linearity of response with dose, the loose-raw salt showing some 2.5 × the sensitivity of the ground salt. The samples showed similar degrees of fading, with respective residual signals 28 days post-irradiation of 66% and 62% for the ground and raw forms respectively; conversely, confronted by light-induced fading the respective signal losses were 62% and 80%. The effective atomic number of the Dead Sea salt of 16.3 is comparable to that of TLD-200 (Zeff 16.3), suitable as an environmental radiation monitor in accident situations but requiring careful calibration in the reconstruction of soft tissue dose (soft tissue Zeff 7.2). Sample luminescence studies were carried out via Raman and Photoluminescence spectroscopy as well as X-ray diffraction, ionizing radiation dependent variation in lattice structure being found to influence TL response.