GRADUATES being too choosy when applying for jobs and universities offering courses not needed by the industry are among the reasons for the more than 600,000 job vacancies in the country.

Deputy Director-General of Higher Education Professor Dr Mohd Cairul Iqbal Mohd Amin said another factor is youth’s “poor response” to available jobs.

“With the number of graduates we have – fewer than 100,000 – 600,000 (job vacancies) is not a small number,” he said when opening MyCareer@MOE at Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) in Nilai yesterday.

Present was USIM Vice-Chancellor Professor Mohamed Ridza Wahiddin.

On Monday, Human Resources Minister M. Kula Segaran was reported as saying employers registered 50,326 job vacancies for graduates and 642,798 for non-graduates in August.

Cairul Iqbal urged graduates to embrace “new learning” so as to enable them to meet the needs of the industry.

“Among the complaints from the industry is that graduates, despite having the skills, certificates and a high CGPA… they can talk, but they don’t want to listen.

“They are also not ready to learn. Graduates should not only have the certificates and speaking skills, but they must be keen to learn all the time. They also need to listen and understand.” – Bernama, November 6, 2019.