KUALA LUMPUR: Salaries for fresh graduates have not increased significantly in over a decade and remain unchanged.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Geological Engineering and Soil Mechanics expert Dr Nor Shahidah said it was important to establish a salary range that aligned with professional standards.
"This is crucial for attracting the younger generation to the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields.
"The discourse surrounding the remuneration of STEM graduates has become increasingly open, highlighting that salaries have not substantially increased from those offered to individuals starting their careers 10 to 20 years ago," she said.
Shahidah said that traditional STEM careers no longer held the same appeal due to the gig economy, which offered higher salaries.
She said that prospects in social media influence promised potential income and greater flexibility than the conventional 9-to-5 jobs, hence attracting the younger generation.
"It is now gravitating towards career paths perceived as less demanding and more enjoyable, moving away from the intensive and rigorous nature of STEM-related work," she said.
Engineer Rahmat Muhad Anuar acknowledged that there had been no salary increase in his 30-year career in the business and urged that the government compel companies to raise fresh graduates' salaries.
"Most fresh graduates are assigned unrelated work outside their field, such as data entry, which does not allow them to learn or improve their skills.
"How can this enhance students' skills when they lack the opportunity to learn, leading to a lack of high-skilled engineers in the country?
"If they are not skilled enough, they cannot increase their salary," he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Society for Engineering & Technology president Megat Johari Megat Mohd Noor described it as pure exploitation by the industry to offer salaries that were not suitable for the workload.
He said that one of the reasons for the engineer shortage was a lack of engineers who specialised in a specific field.
"As it stands now, the industry needs engineering technologists who specialise in specific fields, but we have an abundance of engineers who are only proficient in theory," he said.
Earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the country lacked high-skilled engineers, despite producing engineering graduates that were of quality.