Potential beyond credentials
STUDENTS aspiring to work in the public sector must strive to obtain the right paper qualifications to secure government jobs at officer levels for decent salaries and benefits. Their academic qualifications would also determine how far they could advance in their civil service careers.
Qualifications are also a must for licensed professions such as accountants, architects, doctors, engineers and lawyers, in both private and public sectors.
In 2019, the civil service was bloated with 1.71 million government employees and efforts have been made to trim the excess fat.
Hence, it would be a grave mistake for jobseekers to rely on the public sector for employment, although government jobs do provide security of tenure, and now made even more important by this pandemic, with huge numbers in the private sector out of jobs or incomes reduced.
Naively, most school-leavers continue to study academically, falsely believing that a general diploma or degree would boost their future careers. But paper qualifications are merely testaments to what have been studied, which may have little or no bearing in the working world.
Many graduates expect to be paid based on their paper qualifications but in the private sector, it is only job performance and conduct that matters. In business organisations, every employee must work in harmony and be productive to earn his keep or risk being laid off.
Therefore, the aim should be on learning how to perform well at work rather than studying for paper qualifications. Students must first identify the industries or occupations they like, and then start learning what is needed to perform well on the job and carve a successful career.
Being clueless, many graduates continue to apply for whatever positions that are vacant, regardless of industries.
Without showing passion or commitment, they will not be hired as most will not bother to work hard, keep learning or be concerned with the success of the business.
Our education system is a dismal failure when it failed to teach students how to develop and excel in their future careers.
To perform well at work, it would have to start with having the right attitude, communication skills, industry-relevant knowledge, and job-relevant skills.
Unfortunately, character building is very much lacking in most local schools and universities, and students do not get to learn and master interpersonal communication skills. While national language is important, English is essential for international business, commerce, and trade.
While most Malaysians can speak in several languages or dialects, they are master of none. Communicating face-to-face involves three elements, which are verbal, vocal and visual. The verbal element varies according to language and words spoken, which are mostly information.
But what is more important is the vocal element that reveals the emotion of the speaker, as the same words or sentence can mean differently, depending on the tone of the voice. When talking to one another, more than just dry information is relayed, as feelings are also expressed.
However, the dead giveaway is the visual element, which is more important than verbal and vocal combined. Others perceived us by how we are seen more than what we say, which may not be truthful, whereas our expression, gestures and body language manifest our sentiments.
Academic knowledge, largely outdated, are of little use in industry or current business. While most lecturers and professors could discuss theories intelligently, many would be very lost in the business world as they are unable to interpret what they see or solve common problems.
Thankfully, there are institutions offering technical and vocational education and training (TVET) where students learn job-relevant skills. Those with the right attitude and are also good in industry-relevant knowledge and communication skills get to run a department or company.
In general, graduates with academic qualifications communicate better but lack job-relevant skills, which TVET graduates have acquired but lose out in communication skills. Hence, both are equally weak as the twin education systems have not been producing holistic graduates.
Furthermore, not many Malaysian graduates are interested in lifelong learning, which could be formal or informal. This is evident when only a few are prepared to pay several hundred ringgit out of pocket to attend a training workshop that could give their flagging career a boost.
Ironically for many of them, their parents have spent thousands of ringgit for their tertiary education just for a certificate, which is nothing more than a piece of paper if they remained unemployed or underemployed, doing work that could easily be handled by secondary school-leavers.
In fact, graduates would lose out to school-leavers with good examination results but could not afford to continue their studies and had to work to support their families or themselves.
Being more committed, they work hard and learn fast to prove to others, and many have succeeded.
Whether working for organisations or self-employed, many people without a diploma or degree have attained notable success in the private sector. Their accomplishments were due to performance at work or in business, whereas paper qualifications are just historical records.
Ultimately, career success depends on attitude, skills, knowledge, empowerment and discipline. Attitude encompasses cognitive, emotional and behavioural components, and are difficult to change. Skills are acquired through practice and knowledge must be useful for work.
Deserving employees should be empowered with greater responsibilities and the selfemployed must continue to seek out opportunities. Finally, discipline is needed throughout one’s career as many people, particularly those at the top, have felled like a house of cards due to corruption.
And self-discipline will determine whether individuals and communities would survive this pandemic. Too many people continue to gather to chat, dine or shop in packed crowds without practising physical distancing, and made worse by not wearing masks or wearing them incorrectly.
Students must be taught to reflect on their actions and how they impact local and global communities, as well as how to interact with social and business communities around them, and not just learn from texts, lectures and academic knowledge within the confines of a campus.
Otherwise, few students will be prepared for the harsh realities of working life with all its challenges and hardships, twists and turns.
Those who depend on paper qualifications only are doomed to fail in their careers, as real-world tests are only conducted in the University of Life.
Students must be taught to reflect on their actions and how they impact local and global communities, as well as how to interact, and not just learn from texts, lectures and academic knowledge.
YS Chan