Malaysia’s youth unemployment rate, standing at 10.8%, has significantly affected the prospect of many Malaysian graduates from entering the workforce. Among other such reasons, employers are increasingly finding Malaysian graduates significantly under skilled and lacking crucial competencies considering the emerging technologies and developing industries which are gaining traction in Malaysia.
Investments into smart city infrastructure, integration of artificial technology in digital services and new information technological services in finance require digital know-how necessary to effectively manage these developments. The issue however is the intense pace at which these developments are being facilitated, making it difficult for graduates in Malaysian universities to be sufficiently future-proof at the time of graduation, prepared with the necessary skillset. Graduates are typically syllabus bound during their time of study, subject to a curriculum that is often outdated and requiring years of auditing, reviewal and update before it can catch up with the latest trends. The implication that this has is that it leaves graduates with a skills match, affecting their overall employability.
Institutional educational reforms must be efficient and able to bridge the skills gap by upskilling the Malaysian talent pipeline in a way that keeps up with the rapid pace of industrial development. While it is important to improve the quality of education through sweeping curricula changes that meet industry expectations, this is very much a long-term resolve. What ought to be the governments focus are those presently completing their education in universities as it will be these future graduates who will feel the full brunt of the skills gap should there be a lack of supporting measures for them to upskill.
A policy resolution which the government could consider is the subsidization of micro credentials for Malaysian students to access during their course of study, particularly those modules which equip with students with technical, in-demand digital skillsets. Micro credentials are certified mini qualifications which are designed to expose individuals to new skills through a learning curriculum, typically fast-paced and short in nature. The benefit that supporting accessible micro credentials can have is multi-faceted, it allows students who may have opted for out-to-date courses to instantaneously tap into new areas of learning, it can help to supplement the local curriculum with up-to-date knowledge, and it can refine and elevate pre-existing student skills.
Central to this policy resolution is the question of accessibility. Many Malaysian graduates have been inadvertently disenfranchised due to the higher costs of living, with many having to work part-time jobs to support their education. The cost of undertaking a micro credential therefore could be perceived as a financial liability by the students. What makes this issue significantly worse is the lack of education or awareness of the benefits of micro credentials, making it even harder for students to go the extra mile in adopting the programme throughout their learning journey.
The Malaysian government therefore could work towards a subsidization programme which makes it free in university for students to take these courses through sustainable financing. This would require newfound efforts from the government to collaborate with Malaysian universities to gradually phase in the introduction of micro credential programmes. To test the efficacy of this policy, the government should pilot these the programme in select universities to gather important data points on the adoption access rate of such programmes. It is important for the government to also financially incentivize key industry players to help coordinate these micro credentials through their input and expertise. This ensures that the supplemental education offered in universities is directly imbued with employer expectations, helping to enhance graduate employability swiftly and holistically.
BY Pravin Periasamy, Networking and Partnership Director at Malaysian Philosophy Society
