I don't fully agree with Arbibi Ashoy's comments ( The bane of jobless graduates ) on the matter of unemployment of graduates.

He said employers prefer to employ non-graduates to do graduates' works by quoting examples such as book-keepers doing accountants' jobs and draftsmen doing architects'. The reason is, according to him, non-graduates get paid lower than graduates.

His statement is correct in certain circumstances, but not all. There are many SPM students who are good in Maths, but fail to proceed to pursue higher education just because they fail Bahasa Malaysia. These students have the ability to count as well as, if not better, then some of the so-called 'unemployed graduates'. These people, if properly trained, can be much better than some of the graduates who are expecting high pay but don't know how to do the job properly.

Arbibi also claimed that employers in Malaysia are exploiting their workers, making three out of 10 lose the opportunity of getting a job. This is true to certain extent, but again, not all. It is a competitive world, if you are not hard working enough, you are a loser. If the workers in Malaysia are not hard working enough, we will forever left behind. Look at Singapore, in just 43 years, the Singaporean is enjoying an average income five times more than the Malaysian, and they are still very hard working.

There are so many reasons to this unemployed graduates issue. The quality of our graduates is definitely one of them. Just look at the ridiculous claim that STPM and matriculation are of equal standard.

If I am an employer, I will consider STPM leavers as equal to 90 percent (I will say 100 percent if it was two years ago) of matriculated universities graduates.