July 5, 2006
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This isn’t exactly news – it’s something most of us know for years -
but now we get to see some figures. Plus, now you know what kind of
courses to keep away from………..70% of grads from public institutions
joblessB.Suresh Ram
The SunSome 70% of public universities and institutes of higher learning graduates in
the country are unemployed.This is in contrast with 26% for private institutions of higher learning and
34% for foreign graduates.Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakar revealed the figures
today (July 3, 2006) in reply to a question from Opposition Leader Lim Kit
Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor).He said the ministry had taken several steps, including the establishment of
the graduates’ retraining training scheme as well as providing feedback to the
Higher Education and the Education Ministries, to ensure courses are in line
with those required by the job market.To the original question by Tan Sri Dr Ting Chew Peh (BN-Gopeng), Abdul Rahman
said 20,217 graduates registered with the ministry’s Job Clearing System were
still unemployed as at June 12.The breakdown showed UiTM as having the highest number of unemployed graduates
with 3,278 (16.2%) followed by UUM 1,532 (7.6%), private institutions of higher
learning 1,217 (6%), UTM 1,147(5.7%), UKM 971 (4.8%), UPM 919 (4.5%), other
public institutions of higher learning 840 (4.2%), UM 531 (2.6%), USM 505
(2.5%), UMS 371 (1.8%), UIA 358 (1.8%), foreign graduates 342 (1.7%), Unimas
174 (0.9%), UPSI 39 (0.2%) and others 7,993 (39.5%).Abdul Rahman said the breakdown according to job sector showed ICT with the
highest number of unemployed graduates with 3,942 (19.5%) yet to find jobs.This is followed by Business Administration with 2,714 (13.4%), Accountancy
1,923 (9.5%), Electric/Electronic and Telecommunication engineers 1,229 (6.1%),
Human Resources Management 1,022 (5.1%), Civil Engineers 983 (4.9%),
Mechanical/Mechatronic Engineers 884 (4.4%), Literature Social Science 843
(4.2%), Pure Science 770 (3.8%),
Financial/banking/insurance/investment/property 613 (3%), Office technology
Management/Information management/Library Management 552 (2.7%),
Architecture/Building/Quantity Surveying/ land surveying 540 (2.7%), Applied
Science 533 (2.6%), Economy 440 (2.2%), Agriculture/Forestry,
Fisheries/Environment 401 (2%) and others 2,828 (13.9%).Abdul Rahman said apart from the job clearing system, other measures had also
been taken by the government to reduce the number of unemployed graduates in
the country.
Comments (2)
I don’t mean to sound like a ‘UM supporter’, but I think that this survey isn’t a very accurate way of depicting employment prospects among students. I do know that there are many unemployed graduates, and it is a serious issue, but I wish there was a more accurate methodology.
One flaw that I see in this is the timing of the survey. The last time I took part in it I was only some three months after my final exam. During that time, many young people opt to ‘time out’ for a breather, perhaps in their homes, or go about travelling. While some of them remain unemployed for even up to several years, some are pretty smart kids who just need some ‘me space’ to celebrate the final phase of childhood. I was one of the rare kids who took advantage of that time to jump straight into a short-term period of work.
A more accurate methodology would be to keep track of graduates for about two to three years after graduation, and observe how soon they get a job, where, and in which line of work. This way we would be able to determine which group of students are just getting some ‘me space’, and which are truly serious cases of unemployment.
Statistics are always about methodology, that’s for sure. The thing is whatever the stats, numbers merely give you one facet or one account of an issue, simplistic tho they may be. SO you may get a ‘what’ conclusion, but not necessarily a ‘why.”Why’ is certainly more interesting. But your point is noted. On the other hand there is an observable bias against some local universities and many employers seem to feel that, all things being equal, grads from local Us don’t cut it. One needs to ask if it’s qualifications, language, personality, EQ/IQ, or ethnicity, that worked against them.