CYBERJAYA: ENGLISH will be made a must-pass subject for students in public universities, said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Muhyiddin said he had discussed the matter with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak about a week ago and the details would be announced later.
“Graduates’ basic knowledge is not enough if they do not have the ability to communicate and write effectively in English.
“(These) MNCs (multinational corporations) today which have a certain benchmark, want people who are not only qualified but people who can be ambassadors and communicate with to the rest of the world. And one of the important requirements is the ability to communicate in English,” he said when launching a talent development programme, Cyberjaya Graduate Employability Enable 2 (CGEE 2014) run by Setia Haruman Sdn Bhd yesterday.
Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, added that a graduate's employability "is all about the confidence to communicate in English."
"We would like universities to ensure that every student undergo training in English and they not only pass the subject but are able to communicate effectively as well.”
Also present was Emkay Group chairman Tan Sri Mustapha Kamal Abu Bakar who is instrumental in developing the programme, aimed at calibrating graduates for high impact companies based in the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) here.
This year's CGEE programme will see the participation of 139 trainees from six universities and Sime Darby foundation with six industry partners, including IBM Global Delivery Centre Sdn Bhd, HSBC Electronic Data Processing Sdn Bhd and Shell Business Service Centre Sdn Bhd.
Muhyiddin said educations, linguists, small-to-medium enterprises, corporations, employment agencies and other stakeholders had cited poor command of English and lacklustre communication skills as the main contributor to local graduates' lack of employability.
Although the nation had produced many Information and Communications Technology (ICT) graduates, a high number of graduates were unable to be gainfully employed by the industry, especially large corporations, due to their poor command of English.
Muhyiddin added it was important to build confidence among the graduates to use English in speaking and writing as basic knowledge.
"The whole education system in Malaysia has been based on Bahasa Malaysia and English is the second language.”
He also said by taking graduates-trainees under CGEE which would last for 12 weeks, they would develop the necessary soft skills such as self-confidence to communicate in English besides being gradually employed by multinational companies based here.
"So, we want to make sure before they leave university, we will make English a mandatory-pass subject besides Bahasa Malaysia. This is a new policy I am announcing today - English is a must pass,'" he said.
Meanwhile, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) vice-chancellor Professor Tan Sri Dr Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar said UiTM would wait for the official announcement by the ministry.
He said the university which has 175,200 students, currently uses the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) to gauge its students’ competency of the language. Additional reporting by Rahmat Khairulrijal and Tharanya Arumugam.