Are Emerging South-East Asian Economies Caught in a Middle-income Trap? Case: Malaysia. Paradoxes in Provision of Higher Skilled Labour

Fleming, Daniel; Søborg, Henrik

doi:10.1080/08039410.2014.889035

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Even though human capital theory points to the fact that knowledgeable and highly-skilled human capital contributes to the economic productivity of a nation, employability, skills shortage, and mismatch remain major human capital development issues in Malaysia (Economic Planning Unit, 2010;Fleming and Søborg, 2014). Skills mismatch occurs when education and training do not provide the skills demanded in the labour market, or when the economy does not create jobs that correspond to the skills of individuals (International Labour Organization, 2020).…”

Section: Theoretical Underpinningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Skills Acquisition and Employability Among Arts and Social Sciences Interns in a Malaysian Public University

Monogaran

Subramaniam

2023

IJIE

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Many Malaysian employers feel that university curricula inadequately prepare graduates for the realities of the job market. The present study attempts to rank skills acquisition among interns at a Malaysian public university and identify the gaps through skills gap and radar analyses. Respondents comprised students from an Arts and Social Sciences faculty in a Malaysian public university who had undergone internship as well as the employers who conducted trainings for them. Using a simple random sampling method, 164 students and 43 employers provided responses. The largest gap between employers’ expectations and interns’ performance is seen for ‘values, attitudes and professionalism’. Employers tend to emphasise ‘values, attitudes and professionalism’ as an essential skill for employability. Positive qualities, such as having good work habits and attitudes, are valuable assets that need to be inculcated. Another skill that requires improvement is ‘communication, leadership and team skills’, as poor communication skills can become a serious obstacle for employability. This study provides insights from a dual perspective analysis through the identification of gaps between actual and expected intern performance. This information will be a valuable guideline in redesigning university modules to meet the demands of potential employers.

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Section: Theoretical Underpinningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Skills Acquisition and Employability Among Arts and Social Sciences Interns in a Malaysian Public University

Monogaran

Subramaniam

2023

IJIE

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“…It is not only social and education background that makes it difficult for B 40% to get access to higher education. It is also fee and tuition payment that makes it difficult for individuals from not financial well-off families to get an entry ticket to the middle class via higher education although there are a great number of scholarships available (Fleming and Søborg 2014). The amount of fee and tuition payment is depending on whether the student is enrolled at public or private universities.…”

Section: Theoretical Strands Highlighting Transformation Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But the middle and upper middle class do not increase in line with the number of graduates. More and more students experience a mismatch between their higher education qualifications and labour market demand (Fleming and Søborg 2014). They need to go through a re-qualification process to get a job, which not always is a well-paid job that opens for a middle class position.…”

Section: Theoretical Strands Highlighting Transformation Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Vision 2020 be Far Away? Malaysia's Transformation Problems to a High‐income Economy

Fleming

Søborg

2019

Global Policy

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In the beginning of 1990s, the then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad set the goal that Malaysia in 2020 should become a high-income economy and a vigorous and economically just middle class society. We are not far away from 2020. We therefore raise the question whether Malaysia is close to or far away of becoming a high-income economy seen from an OECD country level perspective. In our examination of this question, we first discus different strands in the debate on transformation from middle-income to high-income economies. The debate has focused on the middle-income trap issue especially from an economic perspective. It is an interesting and fruitful input to the transformation debate, particularly the question whether lack of industrial upgrading and deepening keeps middle-income economies back from becoming high-income economies. We do not deal so much with this economic trap issue in the article. Instead, we focus on income inequality as an inroad to highlight Malaysia's transformation problems. From our point of view, income inequality (high Gini-Coefficient) is an important but often neglected element in the mosaic to explain Malaysia's transformation problems both in a domestic and global policy perspective. We examine income inequality and transformation to a high-income economy from different angles. We look into the business structure; income distribution compared with high-income economies; household income distribution, consumption, lifestyle and the middle class; education and tax system as lever or barrier for reducing income inequality; old and new political coalitions as drivers for maintenance or change of income inequality. Through this analysis, we seek at the same time to highlight whether Malaysia is close to become a vigorous and economically just middle class society. Introduction.Malaysia is on its way towards a high-income economy. It has been a long way. From 1950 to 2019. Malaysia has been 19 years in the low-income category and 50 years in the middle-income category. The goal is to become a high-income economy in 2020. On the way to this goal, Malaysia has had high economic growth rates, and by that standard, it has been a success story (Hill 2012; Wade 2010). When the goal 2020 (Vision 2020) was launched in the beginning of 1990s the then Prime Minister Mahathir in his strategy paper "The Way Forward", envisaged Malaysia in 2020 as a vigorous middle-class society that provides full opportunities for all, also those in the bottom third to climb out of the pit of relative poverty. He saw an economically just society that dramatically escalates its programmes of human resource development. "The ultimate objective that we should aim for is a Malaysia that is a fully developed country by the year 2020" (Mahathir Mohamad 1991 p.1). For him a fully developed country is a country that is member of OECD.We are close to 2020 and Malaysia's economy has still fine growth rates -on average at 5.3 per cent in the period 2011-2015 (The Eleventh Malaysia Plan 2016-2020 Ch. 2 p. 3). The economic growth...

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“…Unemployment is already known to be one of the most severe causes of poverty in emerging countries highly related to low-quality higher and technical education (Sevilla and Farias, 2020). There is a growing call to address this complicated obstacle to the development of nations and industries (Backes-Gellner and Tuor, 2010;Fleming and Søborg, 2014;Lopez et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Qualification as a societal challenge and the role of higher education from a system approach

Goulart¹,

Liboni

Cezarino

2021

HESWBL

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PurposeLooking at the planet as our main and unique asset, the authors encounter fragile zones needing special attention more than others, such as emerging countries. One of their most urgent problems is the qualification gap of the workforce and the consequent increasing poverty and social exclusion. Their backward education system is partially responsible for this disparity, especially in technology-related sectors. In this sense, higher education institutions (HEIs) play a fundamental role in shortening this gap and solving this dichotomy. The purpose of this study is to conduct a systemic study to address the qualification gap of emerging countries, offering a framework to minimize this grand societal challenge, taking Brazilian economy as example.Design/methodology/approachUsing the soft system methodology (SSM), the authors propose systemic solutions to the qualification gap in Brazil by analyzing different stakeholder perceptions and developing a feasible-change framework to transition to an enhanced higher education (HE) model in Brazil.FindingsResults show three main aspects that draw the framework: the education of social and emotional skills, internship support during the first experience in the job market and a closer relationship with employer companies.Research limitations/implicationsAs a future direction, the framework proposes positive changes focused on soft skills-based education and the partnership between companies and HEIs.Originality/valueThe contribution relies on an original application of a system methodology to propose solutions to the qualification gap, involving different stakeholders, their salience and perceptions. The use of SSM to analyze complex problems from stakeholders' perspectives demonstrated how a system approach could empower the stakeholder theory in addressing grand societal challenges.

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Are Emerging South-East Asian Economies Caught in a Middle-income Trap? Case: Malaysia. Paradoxes in Provision of Higher Skilled Labour

Cited by 3 publications

References 16 publications

Skills Acquisition and Employability Among Arts and Social Sciences Interns in a Malaysian Public University

Skills Acquisition and Employability Among Arts and Social Sciences Interns in a Malaysian Public University

Can Vision 2020 be Far Away? Malaysia's Transformation Problems to a High‐income Economy

Qualification as a societal challenge and the role of higher education from a system approach

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