Graduates need new skills to enter job market - Noraini

KUALA LUMPUR: The current job market not only demands that graduates excelled academically but also requires them to be equipped with knowledge and new skills, said Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad.

She said in the current global economic slowdown following the COVID-19 pandemic, new skills, such as digital skills, need to be emphasised to enable a new economic alignment to take place.

"Therefore, the Higher Education Ministry will always support graduate marketability and skills programmes to increase their abilities and soft skills, especially in the development of digital training courses.

"This is in line with the government's intention to create digital workers in the future," she said at the PENJANA Higher Education Ministry-Career Advancement (PENJANA KPT-CAP) Programme certification ceremony here today.

The PENJANA KPT-CAP programme is a government initiative to increase the marketability of graduates and reduce unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme has received an investment of RM100 million.

Through this initiative, 20,000 selected public university, polytechnic and community college graduates will have the opportunity to increase their skills and get job placements after the programme ends.

At the ceremony, 121 graduates from various universities completed digital skill training under the programme managed by General Assembly (GA) Malaysia with the cooperation of Universiti Teknologi Mara's (UiTM) Industry, Community and Alumni Network (ICAN).

During the three-week programme, which involved Digital Marketing and Data Analytics courses, the participants were exposed to digital skills that provide knowledge and added value to prepare them for prospective careers.

Meanwhile, GA Malaysia chairman Tunku Zain Al-'Abidin Tuanku Muhriz, in his speech, said 20 per cent of the course participants have received job offers while the rest are going through the interview process with companies in various industries.

-- BERNAMA