KUALA LUMPUR: The Higher Education Ministry has set one year as the absorption time for graduates to obtain jobs after completing their university education.Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said this period was shorter when compared to other countries such as Australia where the absorption time was up to two years.
He said the Graduate Tracking Study carried out by the ministry last year showed that within three months after completing their study, 81,744 graduands or 52.7 per cent of the total graduands had obtained jobs compared with 41,514 new graduands (26.7 per cent) who were still unemployed.
“The study also showed there was a decline in unemployment within a period of one year after graduation for graduates in the country,” he told reporters after the official launch of the Graduands’ Career and Entrepreneurship Carnival (K3G), here yesterday.
He projected that 200,000 university students nationwide completed their studies and entered the job market each year of whom, 72,000 were males.
“Thus the issue of job availability for graduands represents a challenge which is being given serious attention by the government and the (Higher Education) Ministry.
“This is especially so when 418,000 Malaysians were unemployed in 2009 and of this number, 41,514 were new graduates,” he said.
Mohamed Khaled said that in 2009, the local private sector represented the biggest job provider in the country for graduates of institutions of higher learning with 30,290 being employed while the government sector and the local government-linked companies (GLCs) respectively provided 23,530 and 2,107 jobs to the graduates.
Meanwhile, the multinational companies provided 8,507 jobs to the graduates, he said.
Thus, the minister said he would suggest to the Cabinet that the GLCs be encouraged to become the leading platform for industrial training for local university graduates. — Bernama