‘Graduates must prove their worth to potential employers’ – Dr Sim

0

KUCHING: A university degree alone is no longer the ticket for jobs in the increasingly competitive market, said SUPP president Senator Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian.

He asserted that degree holders of today must prove to their potential employers that they had much more than merely academic excellence to offer.

“Academic skills do not guarantee the chance of employment because employers are now searching for graduates who possess a balance of knowledge and soft skills such as being able to communicate well, are creative and have analytical thinking,” he said when opening the Sarawak Career Postgraduate Expo 2015 at CityONE Megamall here yesterday.

Dr Sim wondered whether Malaysians were up to the competition in the Asean Economic Community (AEC) market, which registers a combined populace of 600 million.

“How many Malaysians are ready to compete in the AEC? We have now the Asean community and we never know if an Asean Union, like the EU (European Union) will be formed.

“We need to understand our competition. Therefore, continuous learning even after you are employed is essential. After 25 years as a doctor, what I learned in medical school is not enough now. We must continue our professional education or get left behind,” he asserted.

Recalling his time as a student, he said there were not many straight A students and probably only two to five per cent of the entire class would obtain a perfect score.

He added that he was taken aback when informed that half of his son’s class were straight A scorers.

“During my time, getting straight A’s was so difficult. But at my son’s school, half of his class got straight A’s and this happened to the other three classes as well. Something is very wrong. It is either during my time, I was stupid or now they are too smart,” he jested.

In order to compete in the global employment market, Dr Sim pointed out that the country must produce quality graduates rather than going for quantity.

He noted Malaysia produced more than 200,000 graduates every year and despite this, many of them remain jobless upon graduation.

“What is the point of producing a lot of graduates who are unemployed? We must look at how to create and match jobs while working together on getting quality products (graduates). If they are of quality, the world is at their fingertips. Even if they are in the jungle of Borneo, people would come to get them,” Dr Sim said.

He lauded organiser PenExpo Events Sdn Bhd (PenExpo) for bringing the expo to city dwellers after having similar events in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and other states in the country.

“This is the first event in Kuching and I hope it will not be the last. I understand that 5,000 jobs are on offer and this should help the government, some parents and unemployed graduates solve their problems.”

Dr Sim said Malaysia had been lucky to see an unemployment rate of less than four per cent, which “is considered zero unemployment although a lot of graduates are unemployed.”

He opined that Malaysians must step up for high-income jobs or their country would not need to recruit as many as 1.5 million Bangladeshis for labour.

“In Sarawak, we are not happy enough to have just Pan Borneo Highway because we need more human resource development. We lag behind in not just infrastructure but human resource development. We want to have high-income jobs, and we employ Bangladeshis because we need to move up,” he said.

Meanwhile, PenExpo Francis Wong managing director said the two-day expo was in line with the government’s aim to provide more career opportunities so as to reduce unemployment in the country.

“This also serves as an opportunity for those who are taking their first step in building their career and those seeking a career change or advancement,” Wong added.

Padawan Municipal Council chairman Lo Khere Chiang and advisor to the expo Sim Kiang Chiok were also present.

Among the exhibitors were University of Malaya (UM), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), JobsMalaysia and Resort World Genting. The organiser also set up a secretariat to offer photocopy services.

The Sarawak Career Expo 2015 will end today at CityONE Megamall at 6pm.