Efforts made to help 27,000 jobless grads
Published on: Friday, November 16, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: EDUCATION and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Yusuf Yacob said the State Government is emphasising on investors and employers to increase their investment in the State to create more job opportunities.He said the opening of any sector such as manufacturing, oil and gas services or other industries will help create new jobs, especially for Sabahans. He said this in reply to a question from Pitas Assemblyman Datuk Bolkiah Ismail on the efforts by the government to reduce the 27,000 jobless graduates in various fields which has increased from 4.6 per cent in 2014 to 5.4 per cent in 2017 and a question from Elopura Assemblyman Calvin Choong on government's strategy to reduce number of jobless graduates and school leavers in the State.
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Yusof said his ministry had taken both short and long-term actions to help job seekers.He added that among the initiatives taken was to hold a working session with the Sabah Employers Association and industry players to obtain early information on job vacancies.He said the Ministry of Education and Innovation also organised the Job Carnival Programme, Skills Training Exhibition, created a Job Portal and worked closely with the Sabah Labour Department.Meanwhile, he said it is clear that unemployment occurs due to job mismatch with current industry needs.
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"In addition, there are job opportunities but located far outside of Sabah where job seekers are not keen. Another constraint for job seekers is that they lack skills, including in English proficiency.Bolkiah in his supplementary question asked whether graduates that are being produced are not needed by the industry rather than the lack of jobs in the market.
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"That maybe the key reason why these graduates are still jobless. After SPM, when they apply to enter university online and what they applied for may not be accepted and ended up taking the wrong course."On the mismatch problem, Yusuf said his ministry has negotiated with all higher education institutions (IPTAs) in the State to ensure that for any course offered, there must be a need for it in the market. "I urge IPTAs to have discussions with these industries in the State and my ministry have also set up a forum for them to communicate."We also ask that IPTAs also have MoUs with these industries on what field they need so that these IPTAs can train students according to the needs of these companies. As such, we hope as a result of this relationship that there will no longer be any mismatches."He said many graduates also do not have any specialised skills when they graduated and key among these is the lack of ability to communicate in English. "This has contributed to their inability to find unemployment. Thus, my ministry has provided English and also other language courses for these jobless graduates so that they can find employment in international companies and also in the tourism sector."We also offer retraining courses for these jobless graduates. For example, we have arranged for the Gaya Teachers Training College to offer training courses to re-train jobless graduates who want to be teachers."He said in order to solve the unemployment problem in the long term, the State Government needs to provide more jobs. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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