The worst thing about long holidays has to be returning to work. I can feel my ass cemented firmly to be seat, my car nicely dormant in the driveway and the thought of waking up early tomorrow giving me bad headaches; I’m contemplating taking more leave. Ha!

Seems like the big topic these days is the Star report on the unemployed graduates situation. A great summary can be found here. I wouldn’t know how to add to comments already made, but I think it’ll suffice to say that the blame game hurtling around the ether’s pretty funny. Blame the employers, the graduates, the graduates’ parents and no one really looks at the causes of the, um, symptoms.

There’s a Star article where graduates complained about job positions requiring experience that they didn’t have. I remember something like this happening in Singapore about 4-5 years ago, when the situation over there was pretty grim. I heard rumours about companies being “encouraged” to advertise for jobs while not having positions open, and then turning away graduates who applied. Just rumours, of course. I wonder if it’s the same in Malaysia, where companies may be down-sizing (or “rationalizing”) their businesses rather than expanding - and we should be asking why.

There’s also the complaint that there has been a shift in school culture, where students now aim for top grades rather than aim for a more rounded school experience. I don’t know, seems like Singapore does this well enough; everybody there’s rabid for grades and they are forced to participate in after-school activities. Do they have it here in Malaysia? I’m not sure, so I can’t say much.

But maybe the above points more toward government policy viz. education. I’m willing to bet that “lack of communication skills” cited by employers means basically a lack in English proficiency. Well, what can I say? We reap what we sow, yes, UMNO?

What about grades and subjects? Heck, I don’t know, man. The last I heard, lecturers were helping students spot questions/topics in university (and elsewhere…) so, I suppose “reap what you sow” works here, too. The same follows for university admissions, I suppose; if you aim for the lowest common denominator, I guess we can’t blame employers for rejecting a flood of grads with nice-sounding degrees, now can we?

I have this image in mind, pretty cruel I’ll admit: an image of families crowing in delight that their sons and daughters have a degree, and then not knowing the value of that degree, or not knowing how easy it might have been to obtain said degree. Who’s the blame here? Why not blame the VCs and such, since they’re the perfect scapegoats.

Ah, let’s not forget that whole image of a typical Gen-Xer or Gen- er -Yer: middle-class, disenfranchised, elegantly wasted, and spending daddy’s money. Conclusions drawn: they aren’t “hungry” enough. Sheesh. How many more stereotypes are they gonna parade, now?

I suppose we can throw our hands up in exasperation. I have a friend who insists that “if we aim for mediocrity, you scrape the bottom of the barrel”. Ignoring the inelegant conjunction of two cliches, I wonder if there’s any truth in what he’s said.