YOURSAY| ‘The real world can be a cruel place if the graduates are not equipped with the necessary ‘tools’.’

Almost 60pct of graduates still unemployed: Maszlee

Anonymous_1544340881: What a surprise. I was shocked. Only 60 percent of graduates unemployed? I would have thought it would be more like 90 percent.

This type of survey is not accurate because it does not state for the 40 percent that are employed, whether they are still in their jobs after the probation period.

Horror stories abound that they are woefully incapable of doing the most rudimentary tasks their so-called degree should have taught them to do.

Also, these 40 percent who got jobs, what type of jobs are they doing? Are they cleaners? Factory workers or Grab drivers doing something that has no relevance to their university degree?

And not to forget, how many of the 40 percent were given civil service jobs in our already bloated civil service.

As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting.

You can open more so-called universities even if the teaching staff and quality is abysmal, you can pander to religious and race extremists, and add more religious studies and courses in the curriculum.

Yes, you can do all that, even give bonus points to some, and racially discriminate against the Chinese and Indian students so they cannot get the education they deserve.

You can then congratulate yourself on the high number of Malay-Muslim graduates. Yet in the end this is all a farce as the so-called graduates are unable to find employment.

The true test is the market place. The marketplace of employers, whether local businesses or foreign multinational companies, don't want to employ them.

Graduates from our local universities, for example, are going to Australia to work as fruit pickers.

While the Chinese and Indians who are denied an education of their choice due to race-based policies, they form companies like Grab, and move them to Singapore. They become leading politicians in Australia. They become top doctors around the world.

But never mind, there is great dignity in our graduates picking fruit. At least it is an honest job.

Anonymous Malaysian2018: Universities must study market demands for jobs that graduates will be able to land after their graduation.

These higher learning institutions must also have courses that meet job market requirements and teach subjects which are relevant to market conditions.

If there is a great demand for accountants, then have more courses on accountancy, not Latin or any other language that would not benefit the graduates when they come out looking for jobs in the real world.

Yes, the real world can be a cruel place if the graduates are not equipped with the necessary “tools”.

In Singapore, the late prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was pragmatic when he made English as the medium of instruction in schools; not Mandarin, even though the Chinese make up 75 percent of the total population of the republic.

He placed pragmatism above political expediency and he was right. Say what you want but look at Singapore today.

You may say that the population is less and easier to govern and whatnot, but the fact remains is that their economy is so much stronger than ours. As of today, S$1 is equivalent to RM3.

A stronger economy for a country would mean that the government would be able to provide more jobs for its people.

I would like to suggest to the students in schools who are not academically inclined to seriously consider taking up vocational and technical subjects.

There is no shame in learning to be a chef or a cook (people have to eat), carpentry

(people need homes), tailoring (people have to wear clothes), hair-dressing (people need hair-cuts practically every month) and beautician (ladies need grooming and trimming).

There is a great demand in the market for these jobs and they would be able to earn a decent living.

I also urge parents of the students and graduates to be more open-minded and realise that such jobs should not be looked down upon.

For those rich children who may wish to study fanciful subjects, let them be. Their parents can afford to throw money. For those who can’t, it is wise to identify what are your sensible or practical options for your future.

Hearty Malaysian: The current main criteria for admission to the public universities are skewed to favour Malays even for those that are not academically good enough.

With the mentality of entitlement, it is sad to see many of these students don’t really strive to better themselves further or are admitted to some courses that are less employable.

Many fresh graduates are not competent in English hence shut themselves out of certain work opportunities.

As long as these policies remain unchanged, the problem shall remain as we can’t continue to slot these unemployable graduates into the already bloated civil service.

Education Minister Maszlee Malik said public universities needed to conduct detailed analysis, including market studies of academic programmes to be offered, frozen or disposed of.

However, the Education Ministry should also be responsible to identify what the job market demands are and to revamp the education syllabus in schools accordingly.

Jaya Jayam: I always felt we have too many public higher education institutions for a small country/population of our size. There are also too many under-qualified students allowed to enrol in our universities.

Compare it to those in the 70s and earlier when only the cream of HSC (now STPM) students gain places in local universities.

Many of these graduates now should have been trained under Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes or should have taken up blue-collar jobs instead of these jobs being taken by foreigners. Imagine the amount of ringgit outflow caused by the influx of foreigners.

So, if our people can't do hard work and want to remain unemployed, what can the authorities do? The authorities themselves have managed the system poorly for decades, what else to expect.

Kelate: Publish the profile of the unemployed graduates - by courses, universities, race, sex, etc. I am sure there will be a pattern and the root causes identified for these unemployed graduates.

For example, are they from overseas or local universities? Are they from arts, engineering, medical science or religious study courses, etc?

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.