Not Presentable No Job
From a poll conducted by the Star to analyse why so many graduates are unemployed, it seems that the lack of good looks and language skills are mainly to blame.
An electronics graduate from Multimedia University says he has gone for 100 interviews, but to date remains jobless because he says his poor command of English and not being handsome enough are the barriers to his gainful employment.
Another graduate, from Universiti Malaya, who claims to have gone for 200 interviews, cites the lack of necessary skills and irrelevant subjects taught at higher learning institutions as being the reasons for being jobless.
Yet another respondent who did Health Science at Universiti Sains Malaysia was told that her degree is not recognised by the JPA and that there are no positions that fit her qualifications in government hospitals. Since her graduation last year, she has attended 30 interviews without any success.
Language fluency, or the lack therefore, is not just confined to the English Language but to all three of the major languages used in Malaysia. Whichever language is demanded by the employer, the graduate must be familiar with it and demonstrate a certain command of it.
Other reasons pointed out include employers showing a preference for those with experience and for those with “high (cumulative grade point average) scores”.