The lethargic situation of the issue above - what I call the mismanagement of human capital competencies - has been in the public and academic eye for so many years and much-awaited solutions have been delayed to a point where it is becoming more paradoxical rather than pragmatic.

Instead of blaming the employers and the universities for the predicament of the current 80,000 unemployed graduates , it is better to put our professional and intellectual capacities into a logical plan of profiling and job matching.

First and foremost, employers must come out with exact job specifications required for the positions available at their respective outfits. These job specifications should be captured in a database and stored in a central, jobs data bank managed by a public authority body.

The next step is to assess the jobless graduates' employability competencies using a web-based assessment system that is accessible by them 24/7. This has to be supervised by an appointed expertise sanctioned by the authority.

The final step is to job-match both the job requirements and the employability assessment results of the jobless graduates in order to establish the most suitable candidates for the positions available.

The above idea is not knew as about three years ago, a consultant was appointed to perform its implementation, according to press reports then.

Let us forget about the issue of the jobless graduates not meeting knowledge-worker competencies as required by K-employers in the so-called K-economy. What is required to be done now is an analysis of all jobs available in the job market suitable for jobless graduates.

Then a nationwide assessment of these jobless graduates has to be performed to match them with the jobs identified. If this proposal can be carried out objectively - without any political agendas or selfish prejudices - I am very sure that the unemployed graduates' problem in Malaysia can be reduced to a minimal level.

We have had enough proposals being assigned to various parties and almost RM400 million spent so far on retraining jobless graduates but none have show any realistic results. It is therefore, worthwhile to find out employer demands first.

In other words, what exactly does the job market want from graduates or our higher education system?