ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
It is an alarming condition when 72.1% of Malaysian school leavers who hold the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) choose not to pursue tertiary education in 2022. As one of the consequences brought by COVID-19 pandemic, this scenario is a serious issue that needs to be taken care off. Letting them not to invest themselves in higher education is a lost of talent pool. Apart from this issue, the issues of underemployed and unemployment among graduates are also prevailing. Every year, Malaysia produces thousands of graduates but their employability issues give us huge question mark. This paper addresses the overview of the graduate employability issues in Malaysia and how Malaysia’s government should react and respond to cater them. As more jobs become obsolete in the near future, it is about time for the Malaysia’s higher education to embrace change and transform themselves in accordance to the industrial needs. The final section of this paper concludes everything and suggest few policy implication.
Baker, R., Saudi, M. N. S., Salleh, M. Z., Puzi, M. N. F. H., Rozali, Y. S. I. R., Liaw, J. O. H., and Mohamad, M. H. (2022). Factor influencing the marketability of graduate: A case study in Islamic Science University Malaysia (USIM). ZULFAQAR Journal of Defense Management, Social Science & Humanities, 5(1), 41-50.
Department of Statistics Malaysia. (2021). Press release: Graduates statistics 2021. Retrieved from https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/pdfPrev&id=N0w0QU95YklKRDFoQWhSV3F6N3NHQT09 on September 5, 2022.
Husin, N. A., Ghazali, M. A. S., and Rasli, S. (2021). Smart PLS approach in investigating the determinants of unemployment crisis among Gen Y. International Journal of Accounting, Finance and Business, 6(38), 172-182.
Jaiswal, A., Arun, C. J., and Varma, A. (2022). Rebooting employees: Upskilling for artificial intelligence in multinational corporations. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33(6), 1179-1208.
Daud, M. K. A., Bhattacharyya, E., Khidzir, N. Z., Parasuraman, B., Savita, K. S., Rao, P. V., Kumaran, J. V., Hassan, N. M. S., and Azman, Z. (2023). Perceptions of the stakeholders on work readiness among graduates from higher education institutions in Malaysia. Innovation of Businesses and Digitalization during Covid-19 Pandemic: Proceedings of the International Conference on Business and Technology 2021.
Mok, K. H., and Montgomery, C. (2021). Remarking higher education for the post COVID-19 era: Critical reflections on marketization, internationalization and graduate employment. Higher Education Quarterly, 75(3), 373-380.
Samuel, O. M., and Moagi, T. (2022). The emerging work system and strategy for skills transition in South Africa. Management Research Review.
The Star. (2022). Study why teens don’t want to pursue studies. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2022/08/29/study-why-teens-dont-want-to-pursue-studies on September 5, 2022.
The World Bank Group. (2022). Government education on education, total (% of GDP) – Malaysia. Retrieved from
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS?locations=MY on September 5, 2022.
World Economic Forum. (2016). The future of jobs employment, skills and workforce strategy for the fourth industrial revolution. Retrieved from
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_FOJ_Executive_Summary_Jobs.pdf on September 11, 2022.
Yun, W. S., and Yusoff, R. (2018). The determinants of public education expenditure in Malaysia. Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, 52(2), 1-17.
In-Text Citation: (Rahman et al., 2022)
To Cite this Article: Rahman, N. H. A., Samad, K. A., & Phong, S. Y. (2022). A Review on Post COVID-19 Pandemic towards Tertiary Education and Graduate Employability in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(11), 567 – 573.
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non0-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode