THE emergence of new careers – such as social media influencing and offering lucrative incomes – is one of the reasons why the Bumiputera community is moving away from joining certain professional fields.

Associate Professor Dr Mohd Izwan Mahmud, a senior lecturer at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Diversity Education Research Centre, said that while career migration has not shown significant development, the imbalance between Bumiputeras and non-Bumiputeras in professional fields needs to be narrowed.

“Career imbalance will contribute to economic imbalance issues. We need to ensure that the gap between ethnic groups cannot be too wide because when a particular career is monopolised by one ethnic group, unity issues will arise,” he told Bernama.

Statistics for 2023 released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia last week recorded the participation of the Bumiputeras at below 50% for certain professional careers such as architects (41.2%), lawyers (38.2%) and accountants (31.8%).

However, overall, Bumiputera professionals in 2022 were still recorded at 92.7%, with 83.8% of them being medical officers and nurses.

Therefore, Izwan emphasised that to produce future-ready graduates and ensure Bumiputeras engage in professional careers, interests need to be cultivated from school, and curriculum adjustments at the university level should also be made.

“Placement with the industry also needs to be done earlier to foster students’ interest until they complete their studies, as done by several foreign countries by placing their students in the said industry from the early stages of their studies,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Youth Development Education lecturer at the Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Associate Professor Dr Mohd Mursyid Arshad said many graduates do not work in fields that match their academic qualifications due to limited job opportunities.

“This situation forces them to survive, regardless of working in any sector, as long as they can make a living,” he said.

He said the percentage of part-time employment among graduates has shown an increase in the past few years, recording 31.2% in 2020, 33.8% in 2021 and 34.4% in 2022.

Mursyid said that if this situation is not addressed, it could lead to the migration of young workers abroad due to more competitive salary offers that match their qualifications, worsening the brain drain situation in Malaysia. – Bernama, December 31, 2023