Survey: Motivated, English-speaking grads more likely to find jobs: KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23 — Employers are more likely to hire based on a fresh graduate’s positive personality and command of English rather than where he obtained his university qualifications, a recent survey by employment website Jobstreet suggests. According to its poll of employers and jobseekers in July, the job placement firm found that deficiencies in interpersonal skills (60 per cent) and language mastery (55 per cent) to be the second and third most-frequently cited reason for why fresh graduates’ are not hired. The number one reason, at 67 per cent, for companies turning them down is “unrealistic pay demands” given their inexperience. The survey also found that almost two-thirds of hirers were not particular about which universities the graduates attended, or whether these were public or private institutions. “The work place, universities and society should work closely to narrow the gap of these expectations,” Chook Yuh Yng, Jobstreet’s country manager for Malaysia, said in a statement today. “Apart from universities needing to create more well-rounded graduates, graduates should also create opportunities for themselves to have proper career planning and seek to constantly improve their skills.” The findings on language skills also support proponents of English-language education who argue its importance in preparing students for the workplace. Earlier this month, Putrajaya made it mandatory for students to pass English in the middle secondary SPM examinations beginning 2016, as part of its Education Development Master Plan 2013-2025. The move came despite the common theme from Malay nationalists who consider a proficiency in the language to be a sign of disloyalty to the country. Continued resistance from the same group towards the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English led to its discontinuation in 2010, shortly after it was introduced in 2003. Despite their misgivings on new graduates, employers surveyed by the Jobstreet were overwhelmingly in favour of picking up candidates fresh out of university, with 85 per cent of respondents saying that such hires were easily trained and adapted to a company’s culture. The survey was conducted in July and polled over 1,000 respondents from Jobstreet’s database of clients and managers in Malaysia. JobStreet is an online recruitment company that caters to Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam. Some 180,000 graduates enter the job market each year. dlvr.it/41NHjN
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:47:57 +0000
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