Match courses with jobs to reduce jobless grads, says TalentCorp

TalentCorp manager of industry partnerships Noor Asmaliza Romlee during the panel discussion on the future workforce and graduate employability.

KUALA LUMPUR: Talent Corporation has urged local universities to upgrade courses according to the nation’s critical job shortage list.

“This will also reduce the number of jobless graduates,” TalentCorp manager of industry partnerships Noor Asmaliza Romlee told reporters after a discussion on future workforce and graduate employability, organised by the British Council.

The Institute for Labour Market Information and Analysis (Ilmia) had recently told FMT that over the past four years, employers had found it increasingly difficult to fill positions in 23 occupations.

These included jobs as information communications and technology managers, mathematicians, actuaries and statisticians, machinery, equipment and advanced engineering professionals, and policy and planning managers.

Ilmia also said vacancies also existed for business services managers, research and development managers, and mechanical, electrical and electronic managers.

Software developers, auditors, financial analysts and computer network professionals are also in short supply.

During the discussion today, Asmaliza said employers are also looking at people with soft skills that cannot be replaced by technology.

They want those with emotional intelligence and those who can solve complex problems, she added.

“Young Malaysians need to develop these soft skills, too. If you know your job requires them, enrol in free courses,” she said.

Nisha Padbidri, Citibank’s country human resources officer, at the panel discussion on the future workforce and graduate employability.

Another speaker, Citibank Malaysia’s country human resources officer Nisha Padbidri, said other than academic qualifications, employers are looking for five main qualities.

These are creativity to connect the missing dots in their jobs; emotional intelligence to deal with the work pressure; judgement to analyse the oversupply of information; mental agility to deal with multi-tasking; and dealing with failures in life.

“Failures are important. Employers would want to know your failures and how you dealt with them and how you moved on from that,” said Nisha.

She said it was also crucial for young Malaysians to get the right type of internships so that they were employable after their graduation. - FMT