CURRENT EMPLOYMENT TREND ABLE TO REDUCE GRADUATE UNEMPLOYMENT

KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 (Bernama) -- The current trend of hiring candidates
based on their productivity and compatibility can help to overcome unemployment
among graduates, the House of Representatives was told Tuesday.

Human Resource Minister Dr S.Subramaniam said the reason for graduate
unemployment was because of the low demand for graduates from certain fields of
studies.

"This can be overcome because the current employment trend is not just based
on a graduate's field of study," he said during a question and answer session at
a House of Representatives, here Tuesday.

He was responding to a question from William Leong Jee Keen, a member of
Parliament (MP) who wanted to know the total number of unemployed graduates and
why they were jobless.

Subramaniam said according to statistics from the Higher Education Ministry,
30,000 graduates remained jobless six months after graduation.


He said to increase their employability, the ministry, through the
Human Resource Development Limited had implemented the Graduate Employability
Programme giving graduates added value through information technology needed in
high-end services.

"This year 1,000 graduates will be trained under this scheme," he said.

Besides that, Subramaniam said various programmes would be held under other
ministries including the Industrial Scheme Enhancement Programme by the Finance
Ministry, the Graduate Employability Management Scheme (GEMS) by Khazanah
Nasional Berhad, the Business Process Outsourcing Programme and SME-University
Internship Programme coordinated by the Higher Education Ministry.

Khazanah Nasional Berhad is the investment holding arm of the Government of
Malaysia entrusted to hold and manage the commercial assets of the government
and to undertake strategic investments

-- BERNAMA