KUCHING: Universities in the country should act as incubators for innovation. The higher learning institutions should move away from purely passive learning to focus more on industrial attachments, said Citibank Malaysia country human resources officer Nisha Padbidri.
“This will provide students with opportunities to experience real-life work settings and a realistic window into the actual demands of the working world,” she said during a panel discussion to facilitate conversation between stakeholders on Malaysia’s future workforce and graduate employability in Kuala Lumpur.
The discussion was organised in conjunction with the British Council Study UK Fair. Nisha was among the panel speakers. Others panelists were University Academy 92 (UA92) international student recruitment manager Rachel Tod, and Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp) industry partnerships manager Noor Asmaliza Romlee.
The session was moderated by Clare Walker, the CEO of Financial Industry Collective Outreach (Finco) — the largest collective impact initiative in Malaysia with 107 Malaysian financial institutions as its members.
Findings have shown that while more than 290,000 students graduate annually, one in five fresh graduates remain unemployed six months post-graduation.
“The world is changing so fast that skills acquired today can become irrelevant over a short span of even a few months. Foresight into what is going to be relevant is the joint onus of policy makers, educational institutions, industry players and the millennials themselves,” said Nisha.
She suggested that university curriculums be synced with industry requirements to enhance youth employability.
TalentCorp deputy chief executive officer Mahuran Saro Sariki also said local graduates were the immediate source of entry-level talent for many industries in Malaysia.
Hence, she stressed that it was crucial to ensure employers benefit from the availability of graduates who are industry-ready and able to support the country’s knowledge economy aspirations.
Tod said the monetary incentives announced in the 2020 Budget tabled recently would certainly be encouraging.
The budget announced a Graduates@Work programme in which graduates who have been unemployed for a year will receive a monthly wage incentive of RM500 for two years should they secure a job.
With the incentives, Tod hoped employers would be encouraged to take on more employees.
She also told students to be more discerning when it comes to the university of their choice.
“While the university may claim that they value employability, students will need to ask if this translates into opportunities to do placements or shadowing in local companies,” she added.
