KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 29,000 graduates have not found a job after six months of completing their studies in 2022.
The Minister of Higher Education (KPT), Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, said the amount was based on official data from the graduate tracking system released by the ministry.
He said the number of graduates who have not found a job after six months of graduating in 2021 is 41,467, or 14.5 percent.
“The employability of graduates is given very serious attention by KPT.
“It is undeniable that the number of graduates in the country increases every year.
“However, the graduate unemployment rate has decreased by 0.4 percent to record 3.7 percent in 2022, compared to 4.1 percent in 2021,“ he said.
He said this when wrapping up the committee-level debate for the KPT in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Mohamed Khaled said that his side admits that there are many post-graduate graduates who have not yet found a job.
He said this is because those with postgraduate degrees in this country do not have many research centres or institutions, either at the government or private level, that offer jobs.
“So that’s one thing we don’t deny; however, KPT has continuously implemented initiatives to ensure diverse talents and skills can be given to our graduates.
“Among them, we carry out periodic review and improvement of the curriculum within a period of three to five years to ensure that students who take up the field have high competitiveness and marketability as soon as they graduate,“ he said.
In relation to the Jelutong Member of Parliament’s call for the KPT to check the doctor of philosophy (PhD) approval issued by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Mohamed Khaled said the ministry has no control over the actions, statements, or behaviour of PhD holders.
“Even if someone has a PhD, he is not necessarily an expert or perfect and knows everything.
“He may be an expert in his field, but for others, he may not be deep in that matter... So for that reason, we are dealing with a situation like that raised by some Honourable members,“ he said.
He added that from now on, the KPT will be stricter in determining who can follow the PhD program and so on.
“It’s really unfortunate, even more so that it happened to those who came out of a famous university like USM,“ he said. - reported by Berita Harian
