KOTA KINABALU, Aug 27 — Public universities (UA) and institutions of higher learning have an important role in dealing with the issue of high unemployment in Sabah by providing various programmes that meet the job market upon students’ graduation.
Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic and International, Prof Dr Shahril Yusof said in this regard, UMS plays a role in producing graduates with high skills and entrepreneurial spirit so that they are accepted in various areas of the job market.
“UMS also plays a role in encouraging graduates’ interest in the agricultural sector because we know that this sector is important to the country in terms of food security, through the UMS faculty located in Sandakan.”
On Monday (Aug 21), Human Resource Minister V. Sivakumar was reported to have said that Sabah recorded the highest unemployment rate at 169,800 people or 29 percent of the 588,700 unemployed in the country.
Shahril said the definition of work now is very broad and is not limited to office work that has employers and employees only, but the concept of work also includes entrepreneurial aspects.
Thus, he said, UMS required undergraduates to take entrepreneurship subjects to train and give exposure to ways of starting a business in addition to getting a lot of new input from lecturers about the appropriate methods, places and platforms to use to start a business online.
He added that entrepreneurship is an open job sector that allows anyone to do it in addition to being closely related to technological progress and very helpful in advancing business, especially online.
“It indirectly allows the community to start a business with low capital while also being able to generate income from home.
“We also have to be broad-minded; job opportunities are not only limited in Sabah. Now, e-commerce is progressing, we can work and do business here, but the market is all over the world,”
Shahril said the faculties at UMS are also currently working to increase recruitment and training and at the same time manage master’s programmes that are still in the process of being approved at the highest level.
Kolej Teknologi Yayasan Sabah (KTYS) Human Resource Management lecturer Mohd Hanif Zakhilan said KTYS together with Yayasan Sabah, the State Economic Planning Unit (UPEN) and other industry partners have planned and implemented short-term courses for its students.
He said in addition to following existing study courses, the short-term courses are to give exposure to the students so that they can easily get a job or become an entrepreneur who is able to provide job opportunities later.
“It cannot be denied that one of the factors that caused the problem was the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic that weakened the economic sector, The situation now is in a post-pandemic recovery mode.
“The situation indirectly reduced the employment opportunities that existed before as a result of employers not being able to hire workers for their respective businesses.”
— Bernama
