Relationship Between Dental Graduates’ Academic Experience, Preparedness And On-The-Job Competency.

Objectives: This study aimed to (i) evaluate UiTM dental graduates’ level of competency as rated by employers in real life setting, (ii) determine self-perceived preparedness of graduates upon graduation, (iii) evaluate graduates’ perception of their education environment, and (iv) associate the relationships between graduates’ academic performance, education environment, perceived preparedness upon graduation and their competency in work settings.

Methods: Self-administered questionnaires were sent to 178 graduates of BDS, UiTM to evaluate their self-perceived preparedness using a survey adapted from Yiu et al., 2010 which contained 9 domains covering major aspects of dentistry and the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) inventory to measure their perceptions on educational environment. The same instrument to measure graduates’ preparedness was used to assess their competency level rated by their superiors. Graduates’ past academic performance data was also collected to associate the relationship between academic performance to educational environment, preparedness and competency.
Results: Hundred and ten (110) dental graduates of UiTM responded to the questionnaires (62% response rate). Most items in perceived preparedness and graduates’ competency level are rated as average or above average by the graduates’ and their superiors. The global DREEM score of 148.99/200 was obtained denoting graduates’ positive perception towards their educational environment. Moderate, significant correlations were found between academic performance and competency and between DREEM score and preparedness. Strong, significant correlations were found between each domain of the DREEM inventory to preparedness level.
Conclusions: Majority of graduates reported good preparedness and the graduates’ competency was rated as averaged and balanced across all areas. Educational environment was perceived positively although certain areas may require improvements.
Perception of the education environment was associated with perceived preparedness, while academic performance was associated with on-the-job competency.