OPEN INTERVIEW ATTRACTS 20,000
TANJUNG MALIM: More than 20,000 graduates and jobseekers turned up for the final leg of the Skim Latihan 1Malaysia (1Malaysia Training Scheme/SL1M) Open Interview Programme at Sultan Idris Education University over the weekend.
Aimed primarily at graduates in Perak and Selangor, the two-day event featured more than 12,000 positions on offer, either as SL1M traineeships, or open job vacancies with 60 government-linked and private companies.
The programme was launched by Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan, who is in charge of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU).
In his opening speech, Abdul Rahman said technically, Malaysia was at full employment.
“Full employment is when the unemployment rates is at 4%, we are at 3.2%, out of a workforce of 15 million people.
“But we recognise that employment is seen as a prime issue, especially among graduates, so we are taking necessary action with various programmes such as Program Skim Kemahiran dan Kerjaya 1Malaysia,” the minister said.
Thus far, 138,000 graduates nationwide had been assisted, either directly or indirectly, in obtaining jobs through SL1M, since 2011, said Abdul Rahman.
Zambry, meanwhile, called on the graduates attending the launch not to give up trying and that they should look on failure as the next step.
The mentri besar brought up his own career prior to politics as an example, whereby after graduating, he first found a position as an academic, before going on to pursue his post-graduate education in other fields before entering politics.
“You should not give up, and even if you land a position which might not seem suitable at first, it could be a stepping stone towards something better,” Zambry added.
The mentri besar said the Perak state government was also trying to reduce graduate unemployment in the state with the founding of Pusat Kerjaya Amanjaya (Peka).
“We started this not to compete, but to supplement the Federal Government’s efforts to reduce unemployment,” he explained.
Head of the SL1M Secretariat Norashikin Ismail said this final leg of the SL1M Open Interview Programme saw more participation from the orang asli and disabled community.
“I hope we can expand to better cater for disabled job seekers too, who treasure the opportunities that come their way.
“For this event, we prepared some buses and transportation to ferry both able and disabled people to put in their applications. One special needs person even asked us how to create a resume. We still have a long way to go,” said Norashikin.
She said many graduates needed to shed their preconceptions of the perfect job with high pay and easy work, let alone not having to travel or leave their hometown for the position.
“We just had one jobseeker who rejected an offer because it would mean having to shift out to another city to work,” said Norashikin.
Despite such challenges, SL1M is still committed to ensuring each graduate who signed up will eventually get a placement.
The secretariat, Norashikin explained, would follow up with jobseekers up to three times to try and link them with businesses for interviews.
“The thing is, even when we take the initiative to follow up with them, we get no replies.
“So we have to assume that you’ve found a placement and you don’t need our help anymore, so we can free up your spot for the next deserving graduate,” she said.
At the same time, Norashikin said she hoped more and more companies, whether SMEs (small and medium enterprises) or corporations, would take part in the SL1M programme.
“It’s also been announced that companies looking to land contracts from the government need to take part in SL1M.
“You can’t just keep taking taxpayers’ money, and not give back to society,” said Norashikin.