KUALA LUMPUR: Seven out of 10 new graduates are unable to get jobs because their degrees are no longer relevant. As a result, the government has to spend extra money to train them so they are equipped with the right skills for the job market.
Entrepreneur Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Yusuf said this was especially true among graduates from the B40 group.
“Their parents encourage them to enrol in university based on the impression that it would be easier for them to get jobs if they have a degree,” he said.
“Unfortunately, most of them opt for courses in humanities that they believed are ‘easier’, rather than the science subjects that would be more in demand,” he added.
As a result, these graduates had to be retrained for new skills, he told the media after launching the BXCess app for entrepreneurs at the International Islamic University Malaysia here today.
“We must throw out the old thinking that one can easily get a job if he has a degree,” Redzuan said.
He said those who wanted to enrol in the university should make an effort to find out what jobs were available to them with the degrees they had. “They should stop taking the easy route by going for the ‘easy degrees’ that do not offer many job opportunities,” he said.
He said universities also had a role to play to encourage students to be adventurous and to take up new challenges.
“With the Industrial Revolution 4.0 approaching, students should be moulded into entrepreneurs so they will have more opportunities when they graduate,” he said.
He said institutions of higher learning should also find out what the private sector needed and to cater to those needs.
On the issue of entrepreneurs relying on government grants, he said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had stated that it should be stopped.
He said those who wanted to go into business could get loans. He also advised entrepreneurs to think global.
