70 per cent get jobs within 6 months of graduating

Local graduates are more fortunate than that of other countries for they find employment soon after graduation because of ample job opportunities, said Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin. He said over 70 per cent of local graduates secured jobs within six months of graduation whereas in some countries they remained unemployed for up to two years due to limited job opportunities. "We are not saddled with high unemployment rate like other countries where graduates remain unemployed for up to two years," he told reporters at the Graduate Career Accelerated Programme (GCAP) Convocation here today. He said the government emphasised on graduate marketability and employability by organising various programs to equip graduates with knowledge and skills to enable them to secure employment. These include the GCAP programme conducted in collaboration with My-Partners and TalentCorp for unemployed graduates who scored the Cumulative Grade Point Average of 2.3 and above in any field of study, he added. The graduates were put through their paces in interactive industrial training, and learned communications and writing skills during the six-week GCAP stint. Khaled said the GCAP was launched by the ministry in 2008 as a pilot project to enhance graduate employability and 90 per cent of 3,000 graduates who attended the programme gained employment after that. "Following the success of the programme, the government agreed to expand the programme with the cooperation of My-Partners and TalentCorp to train 2,700 more graduates," he said. My-Partners Sdn Bhd managing director and TalentCorp chief executive officer Johan Mahmood Merican was present.