Future jobs are about skill sets
QUALIFICATIONS alone are not enough to equip us for the present job market; it is time to also pay close attention to acquiring diverse skills.
“For most educational institutions, we think qualifications matter. Actually, the new economy is not about qualifications. It is about skill sets,” Prof Mahendhiran Sanggaran Nair tells Sunday Star. He is the university’s vice-president, research & development.
“You can have many qualifications but if you don’t have the right skill sets, you will have a graduate unemployment problem,” says Prof Mahendhiran, who is also chief executive officer of Monash Malaysia R&D Sdn Bhd.
The data scientist from Monash Malaysia’s Econometrics & Business Statistics department explains that most industries require graduates who have depth of knowledge in their own areas, alongside the breadth of knowledge on how it can be applied in different contexts.
“And the third dimension is having the right communication skills,” he says.
As the Malaysian economy becomes increasingly globalised, job seekers not only need to be technologically adept, but they must also be able to communicate with diverse stakeholders.
Prof Mahendhiran says that this is where Malaysia can capitalise on its multilingual and multicultural society to become a highly sought-after labour pool.
“At an event I attended yesterday, I asked quite a number of industry players how many of them are actually involved in educational institutions?
“Not just in terms of looking for workers but involved in curriculum design and development, in the value-chain of the next generation workforce.”
The answer he got was less than 10%. This shines a light on the mismatch between supply and demand for talent.
Prof Mahendhiran describes the relationship between industry and academia as “rather patchy”.
“There are things happening but it is not in a cohesive way, it is still ad-hoc.”
Despite the challenges, Prof Mahendhiran believes that Malaysia is doing well in addressing occupational gaps.
“If you look at it in terms of education training, Malaysia is one of the very few developing nations that allocates a lot of resources towards training and development.
“What we need to do now is to have a systematic, scientific and evidence-based approach to identifying the extent of the supply and demand problem,” he says.
In this regard, the Critical Occupations List (COL) can provide an answer. However, addressing labour market shortages is not just about meeting current needs, but also planning for future needs.
“When you insulate students, everything is rote-learning. There needs to be a major overhaul. And it needs to start at the preschool level,” he says.
Prof Mahendhiran says it takes all hands on deck to find a solution for the labour market.
“All stakeholders need to come on board. It is not just policymakers. It is industry associations, institutes of learning and the workers themselves,” he says.