Sunday June 2, 2013
Graduates only know SMS jargon, not proper English
MALACCA: Many multinational companies have to bear with
jobseekers who can only write in SMS jargon, said state Private
Sec-tors Affairs, Human Resources and NGOs committee chairman Datuk M.S. Mahadevan.
These firms are finding it difficult to hire graduates who possess a fair command of the English language, he said.
“They are not looking for candidates with impeccable English but those with a moderate command to get the task done.
“But
the pool of graduates who apply for jobs can only write in SMS jargon,
which is not a formal way to carry out business correspondence,” he said
in an interview yesterday.
This was among the grouses he
received from the management of multinational companies here when he
went around to introduce himself since taking over the state executive
councillor portfolio.
Mahadevan said he would advocate for the
English-speaking officers to screen applications from graduates before
they were referred to these organisations.
“We have to take care
of investors and their requirements, especially those who have to
communicate with their clients from other countries where English is the
main communication tool,” he said.
Mahadevan also lamented
about young graduates who demanded high salaries but did not possess the
qualities required by the prospective employer.
Some employers
complained that their new executives, who were hired based on their
paper qualifications, could not string a proper sentence not just in
English but also in Bahasa Malaysia.
They believed that these
executives could have plagiarised materials from the Internet and
submitted paperwork to their superiors to pass off as their own ideas,
he said.
Mahadevan said he would also propose the idea of a
skills training hub in Gadek, Alor Gajah, to guide job seekers on how to
cope with requirements at the workplace.
“There should be a shift in mindset among young employees.
“Nothing comes easy, so they should stop being demanding just because they are graduates,” he said.
TheStar online
Sunday 2 June 2013.
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