Train grads for the real world

TS,Wednesday July 21, 2010

I refer to the letter “Vital to learn how to learn’” (The Star, July 19) and wish to add more.
Other than courses for licensed professions such as medicine, law, engineering and
accountancy, the general courses offered by universities are meant more for developing the
students than training them for employment.

Top graduates of humanities-based courses are suitable to work in any unlicensed profession
and many of them find work in the sector of their choice. But the same cannot be said of the
vast majority of such graduates.

Before they pick up learning methodology as rightly advocated by the writer, I would
recommend that they first master a language. Malaysians may take pride that we can
chat in several languages and dialects but unfortunately most of us are masters of none.

Language is the key to learning and mastering one will enable us to learn, think, write,
speak and communicate well with those who use the same language. Our ability to
identify, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information and situation are dependent on our grasp
of a language.

Those who have mastered a language would have no difficulty mastering another if they wish
to do so and many have found that English would be the wise choice.

Sadly, most of our undergraduates continue to learn by rote as they have done in schools,
complete their assignments through copy and paste or simply plagiarising.

During job interviews, they are unable to describe in their own words what they have learned in
order to get their degrees. In fact, most will not be able to write an intelligent short essay
describing their hometown, village or neighbourhood.

The lifestyles of many undergraduates are centred on entertainment, mixing with a tiny
circle of friends and cocooned in a world of their own.

They missed the opportunity to engage with people of varied backgrounds and diverse
interests, develop critical thinking, discussing and debating their assignments,
hone their interpersonal communication skills, and acquiring social values and skills.

Upon graduation, they swell the ranks of the unemployed and under-employed graduates.
Instead of becoming independent and productive citizens, they need further nursing
from the Government.

The success of the “Graduate Employability Programme” will depend on the input given
by the officials representing their respective industries.

In 2005, a three-month course fully sponsored by the Government through PSMB was
conducted by a national travel association which combined tour guiding and event
management. It was a flop as the graduates were unable to find suitable employment in
the travel sector as they were trained neither here nor there.

Instead, they could have just joined an existing four-month tourist guide training course,
sat and passed the exams and practised as a licensed tourist guide. I hope the fiasco
is not repeated as the same programme is now offering a certificate in the tourism industry.
Tourism is too wide to study for direct employment as it encompasses many sectors.

For travel, tours and tourist transportation companies, there are different services with
specialised skills for travel agency, inbound or outbound tour operations, tour guiding or tour
leading, tour buses or car rental, incentive tours or event management. Employers would
consider hiring these graduates if they have been trained specifically to perform a particular
job in a specific sector.

Apart from their technical skills and knowledge, the other crucial matters are their character
and communication skills needed for the market.

Over the years, I have personally interviewed thousands of job seekers, many of them
graduates. The criteria I used in the order of priority are character, communication skills,
general knowledge, job experience and educational qualifications.

I would not bother to ask them about the last two if they fail in the first three criteria,
It serves no purpose to look at their certificates.

YS Chan

Kuala Lumpur