BPY 3103 Senior Seminar Assignment: Fresh Graduates' Income in 2020

This Senior Seminar assignment (BPY 3103) prepared by a Bachelor of Psychology student analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fresh graduate salaries in Malaysia. The student reviews a news article from malaymail.com, highlighting the decrease in income for recent graduates compared to previous years due to the pandemic. The assignment presents the student's views, opinions, and ideas on the issue, emphasizing the unfairness of reduced pay for qualified graduates and the need for fair compensation. It also discusses specific aspects learned from the article, such as the drop in employability rates, and the challenges faced by graduates in finding jobs. The student reflects on the skills learned, including perseverance, and how they can be applied in a future career as a Clinical Psychologist. The assignment concludes with suggestions for government intervention, including adherence to SOPs and new approaches to support graduates, and a summary of the key findings on the pandemic's impact on graduate income. This assignment is a valuable resource for students studying the effects of economic downturns on employment and the challenges faced by new graduates in the field of psychology.

BPY 3103 – Senior Seminar
SENIOR SEMINAR ASSIGNMENT 3
Prepared by
AISHVIRITA A/P VIJAYANANTHAN (BPSY 1809-9686)
Academic Programme : BACHELOR OF PSYCHOLOGY (SEM 8)
Submitted to
PROF DR ROSNAH BINTI ISMAIL
Lecturer for Senior Seminar
Faculty
ALLIED HEALTH AND SCIENCES
12 April 2021

Fresh graduates salaries fell to minimum wage level in 2020, says Stats Dept
Date: 1 April 2021
Place: Malaysia
Author: This news came out in malaymail.com/news.
Brief Information/ Overview on the Article:
According to the article that has been published in malaymail, it can be submitted that
Malaysians who have graduated last year are getting less income if compared to the
previous years due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Views, Opinions, Ideas, Comments:
Based on the article, I can say that this Covid-19 has decreased the labour force
participation among new graduates. If we look at the Ministry of Higher Education’s
statistics, Malaysia’s recorded 318,593 graduates in 2020, lower than 346,686 in 2019.
And according to Statistics Department’s chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin, he
raised many questions in relation to this issues such as ‘how many of these new
graduates are working temporary jobs or on reduced hours’, How many graduates
have no choice but to work in low paying or low skilled jobs which is not in
accordance with their qualifications?’ Based on my points above that I extracted from
the article, my view on this is, it is not really fair to punish fresh graduates by giving
them less income irrespective of any cause. This is because they are highly qualified,
they have completed all the necessary education thus they should get a fair income in
accordance to their qualification. They should get a full time job in accordance with
their paper and skills qualification and they should not get less pay. This is also

because our current living cost is very high so to sustain this living cost, fresh
graduates must get paid fairly.
Specific, Significant Aspects/Contents/Process that you learned from the article:
According to the article, Malaysia Insight also quoted Benedict Weerasena, an
economist at independent research institute Bait Al Amanah, as stating that
graduates’s employability in 2020 was at 84.4 per cent compared to 86.2 per cent in
2019. Based on this, what I can learn from this is that the number of employability or
labour (in percentage) has dropped due to this Covid-19 pandemic. This is because
there are many people who lost their jobs due to this pandemic. There are also people
who are afraid to go to work and work because they fear that this disease might spread
to them if they go outside and work and it leads them to lose their job. There are also
fresh graduates who are not getting the job they wanted and with a salary that they are
expecting during this pandemic. This pandemic really gives too many problems
basically to everyone and seriously I hope that the Government will tackle new ways
to reduce Covid cases.
Challenges and Skills Learned and How It can be Applied In the Future:
Based on the article, one can submit that we have faced many challenges during this
unexpected period such as losing jobs, not getting jobs and income that has been
expected by fresh graduates and many more. Thus, I can say that one should be ready
for anything like the challenges that have been listed above in order to sustain our life.
Covid-19 is something that is beyond human’s control and we did not ask for this.
Hence, one must get ready to do any job in this pandemic in order to earn money and
sustain their life because there are many families who lost income and become poorer

because of this pandemic. Thus, the skills I learned from this is perseverance and
never giving up in any situation,and always ready to face any challenge. I am going
to apply these skills in my future career as a Clinical Psychologist because I know
there are many challenges that I should face in this profession such as meeting and
dealing with new and different client’s backgrounds.
Suggestions/ Conclusion:
I strongly suggest that we should follow rules and SOPs that have been laid down by
our Government in order to reduce Covid cases so that we all specifically fresh
graduates will get the job that they wanted and with a salary that they are expecting in
accordance with their qualifications. Furthermore, the Government must take a new
approach in helping fresh graduates who are still looking for a full time job by taking
into consideration their paper and also skills qualifications.
In conclusion of this article, it can be submitted that Malaysians who have graduated
last year are getting less income if compared to the previous years due to Covid-19
pandemic.