KUALA LUMPUR: More than 90% of polytechnic graduates should be able to get employment for a period of the next five years, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad(pix) said this has been proven over the course of three years since 2018 when a total of 96.1% were highly likely to get employed compared to other higher learning institutions.
In 2019, the figure rose to 96.7% and 91.4% in 2020.
“The slight dip between 2019 and 2020 was due to the challenges brought by Covid-19,“ she added.
Noraini was responding to V Sivakumar (DAP-Batu Gajah) who questioned the marketability of polytechnic graduates compared to other institutions.
He also asked why some of these graduates who had obtained excellent results were unsuccessful in securing places in public universities for bachelor’s degree after applying.
Noraini replied that factors affecting unsuccessful applicants to pursue higher tertiary at public universities include stiff competition from SPTM or diploma graduates, programmes applied are in high demand and competitive, or places offered are limited or candidates failed the interview sessions.
“The 2021 and 2022 academic session recorded a total of 7,652 polytechnic graduates who had applied to pursue tertiary education to public universities and a total of 5,103 or 67% had been offered places, “ she said.
“ This shows an increase of 5% compared to the academic session between 2020 and 2021 which recorded a total of 4,445 successful applicants out of 7,175,“ she said.
