“Are we expecting our youths not to have ambitions?” said ManpowerGroup’s country manager for Malaysia, Sam Haggag.
“Why shouldn’t they reach for the stars? Why should they limit their aspirations?”
This was in reference to the result of a survey among employers conducted by JobStreet last year. Sixty-eight percent of the respondents said fresh graduates were asking for salaries that were too high for first jobs.
Haggag said: “Imagine, if you are a qualified engineer and the reason you chose that field was so you can work in the oil and gas industry, knowing that the salaries are supposed to be high. But when you come out, unfortunately, the industry is going through a low economic period and you can’t find a job.
“Or you’ve taken five years plus to study medicine. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect more than RM2,500 as a starting salary.”
Haggag criticised employers who were seeking “ready-made talents at the lowest cost possible”.
He said graduates would often set their expectations according to their personal commitments and employers must take this into account.
“The unfortunate situation currently is that just at the time they graduate, some industries are facing a decline. However, these graduates’ needs remain the same.
“They are in a dilemma: ‘I still need to earn more money, but the job I had planned to do is not there. At the same time, nobody is giving me a chance to learn by giving me employment for me to build up my experience.’
“So unless somebody provides help at that point, you will have dissatisfaction and disenfranchisement.”
Haggag said his company had been helping to bridge the disconnect between the expectations of graduates and employers by providing training to help graduates improve their value for the job market.
At the same time, it consults with clients who are looking for workers to find out what they expect these fresh graduates to bring to their organisations.
“We practise exactly what we preach,” he said. “Thirty-three percent of our employees are fresh graduates below the age of 26.
“The future is with these young people. The value we have gained from having these young people in our organisation has been enormous.”