Pasir Salak Wanita Umno chief Dr Wan Norashikin Wan Noordin said one of these skills is the Chinese language which may be hard to learn, but beneficial for their future.

“Like a jade which has no value when unpolished, a person will succeed only if equipped with knowledge,” she said when debating the motion on religion and education at the 70th Umno general assembly here today.

“And China is our future so we have to learn skills that will make us appealing to the country.”

She also said as China has become one of the largest trading markets, good ties with the country will give Malaysians an opportunity to showcase their abilities and make themselves a marketable product.

“Chinese investors need experts from certain fields and locals with the ability to speak Mandarin would definitely be their top choice.

“Even now we can see job advertisements looking for those who can speak Mandarin.

“So let us grab this opportunity and increase the number of Mandarin-speaking Malay youth.”

Wan Norashikin also called for the Education and Higher Education Ministries to produce more students that can think out of the box, in line with the demands of globalisation.

She pointed out that despite the higher number of graduates today, there are many who are still unemployed.

To solve this, she urged the ministries to increase their monitoring of public universities to ensure the courses provided are relevant with the current demands.

“They must also build more vocational colleges. In fact, there should be one in every parliamentary constituency,” she said.