KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian graduates need more than technical knowledge and access to artificial intelligence (AI) tools to succeed in an increasingly automated workplace, with communication, adaptability and critical thinking becoming equally important.
This was the view of Craig McFarlane, vice-president of Asia Pacific Enterprise Learning & Skills at Pearson, the world’s largest learning and educational publishing company.
McFarlane said universities and employers needed to work more closely to ensure graduates developed the capabilities required by industry.
He was speaking after a study conducted by Pearson and Amazon Web Services (AWS) found a gap between Malaysian learners’ confidence in their employment prospects and their readiness to use AI.
The study, titled ‘AI Readiness: Building the Bridge from Higher Education to Work in Malaysia’, surveyed more than 2,700 students, educators and employers across six countries – Malaysia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.
Of the respondents, 402 were from Malaysia, comprising 300 learners, 51 educators and 51 employers.
The study found that 77 per cent of Malaysian learners believed they were prepared to enter the workforce, but only 33 per cent rated their AI readiness as high.
Meanwhile, 69 per cent of employers identified difficulty finding graduates with the right skills as a primary AI-related challenge for their organisations.
McFarlane said the challenge was not simply introducing AI into education, but ensuring students could apply what they learnt in real workplace settings.
“We’ve also been working really hard to bring together and connect the dots with our clients and share research and data and understanding to help to bridge that gap from learning into earning,” he told Twentytwo13 after the study’s launch.
The findings also revealed differences in how educators, learners and employers assessed AI readiness.
While 49 per cent of Malaysian educators believed their institutions were keeping pace with most or all AI developments, employers continued to report difficulties finding graduates with the skills needed in the workplace.
Among their concerns were graduates’ limited practical experience, lack of professional maturity and tendency to over-trust AI-generated outputs or fail to verify them adequately.
McFarlane said Pearson helped educational institutions understand industry requirements and shared research with corporate clients and governments to inform skills development and policy.
“We view learning as a lifelong process, spanning school, university, professional qualifications and the ongoing development of skills required in the workplace,” he said.
“Foundational knowledge remained important, but human capabilities had become increasingly valuable following the Covid-19 pandemic and the rapid adoption of intelligent technologies.
“How do you communicate your empathy? Your creativity, communication skills – communication skills when it’s a digital communication – these are all critical human capabilities that have really come to the fore.”
The study found that educators and employers differed in their priorities when assessing graduate skills.
While 47 per cent of educators emphasised functional AI tool use and 45 per cent highlighted creativity and innovation, employers placed greater emphasis on communication and collaboration, and the ability to combine human judgement with AI capabilities. Both were cited by 51 per cent of employers.
McFarlane said individuals needed to take a targeted approach to skills development as the capabilities required for different jobs continued to evolve.
He acknowledged that the cost of living could make people cautious about spending on further education, but said skills development should be viewed as an investment rather than an expense.
“The cost of developing skills is not necessarily monetary. It could be a cost of time. It could be a cost of focus,” he said.
Individuals should first identify their skills gaps and understand which capabilities were in demand in their chosen industries or roles before deciding where to invest their time and resources, he added.
“If you’re very targeted in the investment that you’re making in your education and skills development, by understanding what those skills are in demand for the industry that you want, or the job you want to move into, and investing in that, then it’s an investment, not an expense.”
Practical experience was another area where learners saw room for improvement.
The study found that 49 per cent of Malaysian learners believed more practical experience would increase the value of their education, while 37 per cent wanted more opportunities to solve problems using AI.
More than half of learners (52 per cent) and employers (53 per cent) also favoured a hybrid model in which university education and practical work experience were equally important.
McFarlane said access to learning and assessment needed to account for differences in internet connectivity, particularly for people living outside major urban centres.
Employers, he added, should consider different ways of delivering training rather than assuming every worker had continuous access to AI tools or reliable internet connectivity.
“Thinking about accessibility, thinking about how somebody that might be in a rural or remote location can access the same information that somebody in a city location can access is also good economic policy,” he said.
Improving access to learning and work opportunities could help employers tap talent beyond major cities and reduce the need for people to relocate to urban centres to pursue career opportunities.
Malaysia had made progress in improving connectivity, he said, although challenges remained.
Beyond access to digital tools, McFarlane said organisations needed to establish clear guidelines on how employees could use AI and provide training to help them incorporate the technology into their daily work.
Companies risked failing to realise the benefits of AI if they focused on acquiring tools without adequately preparing employees to use them, he said.
“People need to have access and understanding how to use it,” he said, adding that organisations also needed appropriate safeguards and transparency around AI use.
AI projects should begin with a clear understanding of the problems they were intended to solve, followed by efforts to equip employees with the skills needed to implement solutions effectively.
Organisations could not expect immediate efficiency gains simply by introducing new technology, as implementation and workforce training required time and investment.
The study also highlighted governance, faculty capability and the gap between classroom learning and workplace requirements as areas requiring attention.
McFarlane said employees’ understanding of AI evolved as they gained experience using the technology, with experimentation playing an important role alongside formal training.
For Malaysia, the priority was to ensure that growing familiarity with AI translated into meaningful workplace capability, supported by practical experience, continuous learning and responsible use of technology.
Also present at the launch were Ruzina Hasan, acting deputy high commissioner of the British High Commission Malaysia; Datuk J. Palaniappan, executive chairman of the Asean Future Workforce Council; Professor Dr Ho Chin Kuan, vice-chancellor of Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation; Datuk V. Rathakrishnan, managing director of World Education Placement Services; and Dr Mahzan Teh, director-general of Majlis Amanah Rakyat.
