Kepada Tetuan Profesor-Profesor Yang Bermajlis, Bersidang, Berdendang Dan Begitu.

 

Yesterday I had a conversation with some friends who know the job situation well. Here is some feedback from the human resource recruitment people. These include (especially) the online employment agencies etc.

The feedback is that Multi National Companies (MNCs) are less keen to employ local engineers who graduate from local (government) universities. 

There is a trend now among MNCs to employ graduates from Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and even Indonesia. They say that our local graduate engineers fall below their requirements.

Fall below their requirements means 

• i. they cannot perform their tasks well 
• ii. they will need more training on the job (which will cost time and money)
• iii. its more a nuisance to hire them, especially when engineers from nearby ASEAN countries can perform better

They find that graduate engineers from Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia meet their requirements better.

Of course the MNCs need work permits to bring in graduate engineers from Vietnam or Philippines. Some MNCs have already had meetings with our authorities and told them that  if they cannot get work permits they may have to close their factories and move out of Malaysia.

And here is some feedback about one particular university based in Shah Alam. Their graduate engineers have completed core courses in engineering. However almost all their non-engineering elective coursework (about 20% to 30% of their degrees) are in religious studies. 

Religious studies are very far removed from metal casting, electronic circuits, software engineering etc. 

The job market prefers graduate engineers from Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand etc who do not have any coursework in religious studies at all.

And this is the real world job market - the multi national companies. Not the JPA, the GLCs, the government agencies etc.    

Akhir kalam, beginning April this year there will be another 300,000 or so graduates from vocational institutes, 2 year certificate courses, 3 year diploma graduates, 4 year degree graduates entering the job market. 

THERE ARE FEW OR NO JOBS WAITING FOR THEM.

We dont know what happened to last year's 300,000 or so graduates. Have they all found jobs yet? I dont think so.

So this year there will be another 300,000 graduates. Maybe next year as well.

Dont forget the SPM leavers. There will be a few hundred thousand of them also. Now they are competing with the university graduates for Gaji Minima jobs.

TUAN-TUAN THERE ARE NO JOBS IN THE ECONOMY. 

The situation can be fixed easily. We can really make Malaysia Great.

Please believe me when I say this. We can really make Malaysia Great and create good jobs for all our young people.  

The solutions are so super easy. 

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.