I am delighted to learn that a 27-year-old teacher with a master’s degree married her teenage sweetheart, more so when her parents found the bridegroom to be responsible, patient and helpful.
However, she and her parents were questioned by relatives and villagers why she did not marry a teacher or someone from her university but a lorry driver with only Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia. Her family was gracious to accept a modest dowry and held a simple wedding, which gave Zuraiha Zaini and Mohd Hafis Hozahli a great start in their married life, free from debts and pretensions. And kudos to her parents.
Recently, I wrote “The starting pay for driving buses and lorries is normally higher than what many fresh graduates with bachelor’s degree are paid in the market. Those handling trailers are earning much more than many with a master’s degree”.
Zuraiha disclosed her husband is earning twice more than her. I have always encouraged Malaysians, particularly fresh graduates, to take up commercial vehicle driving to earn higher income and develop their careers, as they can later move up to management positions. But many parents still think that once their children have obtained a university degree, they are set for life. That could have been true more than 33 years ago when the last batch of English-medium students graduated from local universities.
In the decades that followed, the standard of education dropped and continued to plunge after passing marks were lowered to achieve key performance indicators. In many universities, spoon-feeding and plagiarism replaced critical thinking and writing.
Most graduates are unable to write an intelligent essay on the spot on matters they ought to know including how tertiary education have developed them or describe in their own words what they have learned and how to apply it in the workplace.
The one skill all academic and TVET graduates must acquire is interpersonal communication to empower them to learn fast and well, get along with people and gain the confidence of bosses, colleagues, customers and suppliers.
Most unemployed and underemployed graduates are weak in communication skills and therefore lack confidence to start from the bottom and quickly learn their way up. They rather wait indefinitely for jobs that pay more as developing their skills and careers are secondary.
For those whose parents have invested a substantial amount of money for them to study in private universities, they should treat low starting pay as pocket money, as what they will learn on the job can be more valuable than what they have studied costing tens of thousands of ringgit. Moreover, it is free.
In 2017, Minister of Human Resources Datuk Sri Richard Riot was confident that the percentage of skilled workers in Malaysia will increase from 28 percent to 35 percent by year 2020.
This high figure is bloated by treating all graduates, including the unemployed and unemployable, as skilled workers when in fact the majority of those with general degrees have no skills, unlike those who studied licensed professions.
Ironically, bus and lorry drivers who skilfully handle large commercial vehicles are not considered skilled workers, as they are without a degree, diploma or Malaysia Skills Certificate.
In Sydney, retired ship captains, pilots and uniformed personnel keep themselves active by driving city buses. In developed countries, it is no surprise a plumber earns more than a doctor, and those holding fulltime jobs can live comfortably, unlike the huge disparity of income in Malaysia.
Intelligent recruiters seek candidates with good character and communication skills, not old paper qualifications that are of little use today and lesser in future. With change being a constant, career success depends more on adaptability quotient (AQ) than intelligent quotient (IQ) or emotional intelligence (EQ).
But many Malaysians are still stuck in the pre-Internet era. On October 17, the first fifth generation cellular network technology (5G) smartphone was officially launched in Malaysia, making us one of early users of 5G technology. While many Malaysians are behind time and superficial, others are keeping pace with the fast-changing world. Those conversant in English can easily engage and interact with the global community, while others may be confined to their own small world, albeit comfortable for now. Graduates must realise their so-called knowledge is no match to information stored in a thumb drive in the form of texts, pictures or videos, which can be transmitted online. With increasing use of artificial intelligence, those lacking people skills will eventually be replaced by robots.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
