Santiago, who is an economist and a DAP member, said Pakatan Harapan chairman Mahathir Mohamad got it wrong when he linked the problem of unemployment to the government’s failure to generate enough professional work for university graduates.
“Just because our graduates are unemployed, it does not mean there are no job opportunities,” he told FMT. “It just means that our education system is not producing competent people to take up these jobs.”
Mahathir, in a question-and-answer session on Facebook last Wednesday, lamented that many graduates had ended up selling nasi lemak or becoming drivers for ride-hailing companies.
He said it was a shame to Malaysia that there was a rising number of graduates who were not working in what they were trained for, adding that this testified to the government’s failure to create job opportunities for them.
Santiago said employers were keener to employ people trained overseas than those trained locally. And those companies that were looking for locally educated employees, he added, preferred graduates from private universities.
“First, they will look for people who have been trained for four years overseas. If they can’t find those, then they will look for either those who have been trained for two years overseas and two years locally, or those trained three years locally and one year overseas.
“When these are unavailable, their third choice would be to hire those who studied in private institutions as opposed to those who studied in government universities.
“Despite the millions of graduates coming out of our public education system, employers don’t see them as employable.”
Santiago said employers were not the only ones to distrust the government’s higher education system, noting that many parents preferred to send their children to private institutions if they could afford to do so.
“That’s why there is a mushrooming of these private schools,” he said. “Those who can afford to send their children to private schools will do so and it is these children who are getting a better education and ending up continuing their studies overseas.”
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Mahathir not impressed by graduates becoming Uber drivers, nasi lemak sellers