DON'T LOSE GOOD TALENT

this is a news that i read on the star online.

MALAYSIA is experiencing a very serious brain drain problem, with many students staying overseas after they have graduated, and many local graduates and families migrating overseas, even as near as to Singapore.

Even though the Government is putting in a lot of initiatives in attracting Malaysians abroad to return to work, nothing much has changed as many still choose to live abroad.

One of the steps taken by the Public Services Department (PSD) is introducing TalentCorp. This allows PSD-sponsored students to come back to Malaysia to work in any private companies listed in TalentCorp, not just in the government sector. This allows the PSD students to contribute to the economy of Malaysia.

My brother is a PSD scholar who has just graduated with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Economics from the London School of Economics. He is interested in working for a consulting firm, which TalentCorp could not offer.

He was very delighted to be offered his dream job in London (after failing many interviews from other companies) and asked PSD if he would be allowed to defer going back to Malaysia right after his graduation so that he could stay in London for a few years to learn new skills and transfer the knowledge back to Malaysia when he comes back.

Surprisingly, the PSD in London and Putrajaya said that they do not allow students to defer their bond any longer. All students would have to return to serve their bond or pay the money that PSD has spent on their education in one lump sum.

Since my brother was more interested in working in the London consulting firm, he chose to pay the scholarship back.

If PSD does not allow students to defer their bond anymore, students who wish to stay on overseas will need to pay their scholarship in full. And there will be nothing to attract them back to Malaysia, since salaries are higher overseas.

In addition, students who choose to pay their bond will be half a million ringgit “poorer” than their peers who choose to go back to Malaysia to work. Hence, they will need to work overseas for five years to break even or recover what they have “lost”, and then another five years to catch up with their peers in Malaysia, who would by then have owned a big house and two big cars.

I ask that the PSD reconsider allowing students to defer their bonds but, at the same time, require these students to sign a new contract stating that they must return to Malaysia within a stated period, say, five years after graduating; failing which they would incur a penalty of double or triple the scholarship amount.

With that, Malaysia can still retain these good talents, especially after they have acquired new skills, talents and knowledge that can be transferred back to Malaysia.

Why bother undertaking the hard work of training fresh graduates when we can leave that task to the companies abroad? By the time the graduates have to come back, they would have experience and can handle projects competently.

The Government needs to do something to retain the good talents. There is no point sponsoring good students to study overseas and letting them be exposed to the culture there and asking them to come back to work straight after.

CONCERNED,

Nedlands, Western Australia.