MANY Malaysian employers complain that local talents lack the skills set needed to meet growing market demand, leaving them with no choice but to hire foreigners even for professional services.
On the other hand, local talents lament that Malaysians employers often do not offer them adequate remuneration for the skills set rendered, resulting in many of them hopping from one job to another and in many cases, seek better opportunities in foreign nations.
When asked to decipher the conundrum, Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) national council and SME chairman Koong Lin Loong said it all boils down to a serious mismatch between the education received and market forces’ requirement.
“It’s a classic chicken and egg situation. I see two problems here. One is, employers find it hard to get the right talent to fill up a particular vacancy.
“But when the right talent does show up, employers find it hard to pay the person an appropriate remuneration.
“It’s a dicey situation because employers want talents with experience. However, if you don’t give talents opportunity, how are they gain experience?” he told FocusM.
On the talent part, Koong said that there was a flaw on how the Government prepare talents for workforce, with too many heads spoiling the soup.
“Take for example, our vocational training. We have the Education Ministry running several of it, the Institut Belia Negara running others. The question is, are the syllabi streamlined?
“So, it creates problem when students leave training. Just so you know, in Germany, technicians sometimes get paid higher than engineers due to their specific skill set but here, they are considered low-tier,” he said.
Another problem, Koong added, involves the employers themselves where some do not see the importance of having the right talent with them.
“Employers have this mindset of putting talents at the back end of the queue. As a result, you don’t grow your business, profits dip and cannot digitalise.
“At the end, employers fall back on cheap foreign labour. Basically, they are just using numbers to offset the lack of efficiency and talents,” he said.
In addition, Koong said that Malaysia’s small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), the bedrock of the nation’s economy, seem to be struggling to be profitable of late.
“They are struggling to make better profits due to various reasons. So, how are they to pay matching remuneration to skilled talents?” he asked.
Due to all these problems, Koong said that many talents frustrated, taking up jobs in foreign nations and leave the vacuum to be filled by migrant workers.
“Look, if I’m a skilled talent, it is natural for me to look for the best opportunity. Since there is mismatch here, in terms of remuneration and career path, I will definitely look elsewhere.
“Under globalisation, people now can go anywhere. In fact, many Malaysian are moving to Vietnam and Cambodia for better opportunities despite their infrastructure development is not par with our country.
Offering solutions, Koong said that the Government should prepare students for the workforce from secondary school onwards.
“And what is learnt during studies must be useful at workforce. Based on my own experience, whatever I learnt during my tertiary education in London helped me to become an accomplished auditor.
“But here in Malaysia, forget about specific skills set. Even our language skills need improvement. Our competency in both Malay and English can be considered lacking,” said the SME Corp director.
Koong also urged the Government to stop the overemphasise on creating entrepreneurs, which is only wasting time and energy.
“The fact is not everyone is can become entrepreneurs. Instead of putting too much focus on that, let us also create intrapreneurs, where they can lead a unit within a company and flourish,” he said. – Jan 31, 2021
