Course quality and perceived employability of Malaysian youth: The mediating role of course effectiveness and satisfaction.

In today's rapidly changing job market, digital competence is quickly becoming a requirement for employability. This has put pressure on the next generation, particularly digital natives, to be well-equipped to deal with the turbulence of technology. This paper aims to compare youth's pre-course and post-course digital competency levels and examine students' perceptions of their employability after taking digital-skills-related courses. The Penang government initiative of an online learning program named "Penang Young Digital Talent Program" is designed to foster digital competencies. The program comprises online courses such as web design, digital marketing, etc. Therefore, the current study has examined the current level of Penag youth's digital readiness and digital competency (survey 1, N = 662) and the evaluate program's effectiveness while determining the impact of course quality on perceived employability (survey 2, N = 385) students undergo. The participants of this program range from 18–30 years old (post-secondary school and graduates), who are either born in Penang or have resided in Penang for a minimum of 3 years. The participants reported that their digital competency improved after participating in the talent program. The results of Smart PLS reported that course quality has a significant and positive relationship with perceived employability. Moreover, there is an indirect impact of student satisfaction and course effectiveness on the perceived employability of Malaysian youth. These findings have implications for educational policymakers who should prioritize young people acquiring digital skills to compete in the modern labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]