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Recently, Halim Saad of The Malay Mail interviewed Jobstreet Chief Executive Officer, Suresh Thiru to understand more about the current Malaysia job market, based on Jobstreet statistics.

Now here are the key points that you want to know:

1. It is not difficult to find job these days for graduates in human resource management, computer & information technology, bio-technology, pharmaceutical, and oil, gas and petroleum. These are currently the fastest growing industries based on number of vacancies.

2. Sales & Marketing jobs are also in demand. However, jobseekers are not keen for sales related position, thinking it as a tough area to venture. There are about 7000 to 8000 vacancies in sales and marketing monthly.

3. Computer & information technology is the largest sector with more than 10 thousands jobs posted in 2005.

4. Human resource sector has the highest growth with almost 80% jump of increase, followed by call centre, information technology, bio-technology and pharmaceutical.

5. Graduates need to be aware that employers are not only looking for employees with good academic qualifications, but are also seeking those with leadership traits, good communication skills and excellent interpersonal. Poor command of English is one of the major short comings that puts off the prospective employers from hiring.

6. If you’re looking for an attractive salary package in malaysia job market, find jobs in the area of information technology, computer, engineering, civil engineering, construction, manufacturing, production operations and accounting and finance sectors.

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NST reports that Silterra Malaysia, a company specializing in wafer and microchip manufacturing, will provide training programs for local community colleges in Malaysia, as part of the agreement with the government to provide better employment prospects for students enrolling in the college.

According to Silterra chairman Datuk Jamaluddin Jarjis, the company is keen to participate in the program and play a key role in developing and shaping the future career of young Malaysians. As part of their social responsibility, they agree to commit their resources and technical expertise with the Malaysian labor force.

Industrial training, internship and facilities sharing will be part of the areas of collaboration covered. Additionally, Silterra will also periodically involved in the review of the curriculum and courses offered to ensure that they are aligned with the needs of the job market.

Silterra’s main facilities and plant are located in Kulim, Kedah, and was established in 1995 and to date, has collaborated with more than 20 universities and higher learning institutions. Among them are Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malayia (UKM) and Universiti Malaya (UM).

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Malaysia is short of remisiers to further promote the local stock market to retail investors, according to Bursa Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Yusli Mohamad Yusof when speaking to the press.

According to him, they are currently about 6,000 registered remisiers in Malaysia, but he is not sure how many of them are still active today. The number of remisiers have not been increasing ever since the financial crisis that hit Malaysia in 1997/1998 even though the number of stockbroking branches had increased over the year.

In view of this, stock broking firms are urged to recruit and train more young remisiers to cater for younger generation of investors as brokers and remisiers play a key role in sustaining interest in Malaysia share market.

However, in response to Yusli’s statement, The Remisiers Association of Malaysia voiced that ‘Malaysia has more than enough remisiers’ and ‘it is unfair to blame remisiers for the lack of performance in retail market’, adding that people today do not have much interest in becoming a remisier due to unattractive earnings.

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A degree alone is not enough to succeed in today’s competitive jobmarket. To give undergrads the extra edge, local public universities have integrated soft skills into their programmes.

With an estimated 100,000 students set to graduate from public universities this year – not counting the thousands completing their studies at private institutions and overseas – the company above should not have a problem finding a suitable candidate to fill its vacancy.

Unfortunately, as many employers have oft complained, most Malaysian graduates lack the necessary soft skills vital for work such as communication, problem solving and team work skills.

According to Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakar, it is this lack of soft skills which is largely responsible for the difficulty faced by some 90,000 young people in finding employment in Malaysia.

To address this problem, the Higher Education Ministry recently introduced a soft skills module to prepare students for the world of work.
The module is a combination of all the ideas and programmes from the 17 public institutions nationwide, says Assoc Prof Thanthawi Jauhari Ahmad who is head of the Career, Counselling and Alumni centre at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM).

The standardised soft skills module allows the universities to share their best practices and enhance existing programmes at the same time, he says.

“In UiTM, we start from Day One to prepare students for work.

“This new module adds detail to our current student development programmes.”

At the university, he adds, employers’ expectations have always been emphasised.

“Our graduates are more marketable than their counterparts fro  other universities due to their strength of character, entrepreneurship skills and good command of English; our course are tailored to market needs,” he says.

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Those who are not cut out for higher academic enrollment e.g. degree can alway choose to go to community colleges around the country. The problem is, they are always considered ‘2nd class’ with little to promise on the employment and job prospect.

But this will change as the malaysia government is taking an initiative to rebrand community colleges to improve job prospect opportunities for students enrolling in the colleges. It is targeted that the employment rate will improve from 57% to 80% under the new rebranding exercise.
The crux of the rebranding will involve collaboration with private companies and the over 30 courses offered will be customized to tailor the job market needs. These companies, which also include government-linked companies will provide inputs on which courses suited to their needs as well as providing trainings and internships.

Diploma courses will also will be added, and as many as 25 new community colleges will be opened to cater for this.

14,000 students pursued the 21 full-time courses offered at the colleges last year. During the same period, 71,684 people attended the short-term courses offered at the colleges. 

The rebranding exercise was officiated by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, witnessing the signing of memorandum between Ministry of Higher Education and over 30 companies involved in the collaboration in Kepala Batas. 

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According to PIKOM, Malaysia is having a shortage of IT specialists, especially in the networking field. Part of the problem is due to lack of exposure among IT graduates in the real world of IT business.

This situation leaves IT graduates who only have generic knowledge and skills in IT with a mismatch between the skills they have and the skills wanted in the job market.

Sandy Walsh, Cisco regional Networking Academy Programme manager, said Malaysia is short of 4,200 networking specialists, according to statistics from a study by research firm IDC. The study had been commissioned by networking vendor Cisco.

The problem spans the Asia-Pacific region, which faced a shortage of 210,000 networking professionals last year, said Walsh.

She said the region-wide shortage would double by 2009, leaving some 40% of networking positions unfilled, especially in the most critical areas of network security, wireless networking, and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol deployment.

More story from The Star Online.

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INTI college has teamed up with Malaysia’s premier recruitment agencies Jobstreet and Jobmarket with aim to provide a quality education with a focus on career development. With the collaboration INTI is hoping to produce more and more graduates having the right skills needed by the job market in Malaysia.

The need of shaping early career has become inevitable due to higher competition in the job market with tens of thousands  graduates produced each year to enter the employment industry. With the stiff competition, it is important for students and graduates-to-be to engage themselves with the right parties and organizations to help them landing their job fast.

The collaboration also allows closer interactions between the graduates and potential employers. INTI will have their website integrated with Jobstreet’s career page where the students will be able to log in and surf for job vacancies available in the website. Similarly, Jobstreet also will be able to identify talents and help them finding their dream career of choice.

The collaboration with JobMarket, a subsidiary of BASIS Group of Companies, will boost the internship programmes for ICSJ students. JobMarket will help students to pursue their internships in various corporations and businesses, thus allowing students an opportunity to gain working experience before graduation.

JobMarket will also organise talks on internship guidance.

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The government has again urged Malaysians to look into biotechnology sector as a new field to venture. This is because it will incur less cost than operating a manufacturing plant. Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Kong Cho Ha said the Malaysia government is encouraging any party to set up and run biotechnological plants in the country.

The manufacturing sector is also currently facing stiff competition from other nations in the region, including the boom of China and India market. The cost of land, labor and operation cost has also been increasing year by year.

He also said that Malaysia has a lot more room to improve in terms of biological advancement and the government is also offering vast marketing opportunities.

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Malaysia Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Badawi has assured Malaysians that SME loans will be given to small and medium sized industry business owners regardless of their races.

He told the press that the SME banks are not only  government-linked institutions but also commercial and financial institutions.

What it means is that any entrepreneurs wishing to get some capital from the banks will be able to do so provided the meet all the required guidelines.

Some parties have been asking questions of whether the loans by SME banks are biased towards bumiputras only.

An expected total loan of more than 3 billion ringgits are being committed to make the SME development program a success.

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Majlis Amanah Rakyat, MARA is set to train more entrepreneurs in various fields to create Malaysian entrepreneurs success stories. Aspiring entrepreneurs will be trained in different careers and sectors including cloth making, cosmetics, automotive, reflexology and others.

This is part of Malaysia’s government effort to produce more than 10,000 entrepreneurs for the 9th Malaysia Plan project. There will be a total of 28 courses available to choose by participants.

In view of this, MARA has already signed memorandum of understanding with a few major companies including Naza Bike Sdn Bhd, Samata Industries and Prima Export Food Complex. These companies have agreed to provide on-job training for youths and those aspiring to be entrepreneurs.

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