GEORGE TOWN: You graduate as an engineer and take your first career step, only to find your gross pay is about RM3,000. Seeking a higher quality of life, you switch to another job or even start a small business. To keep the engineering talent pool intact, 11 local factories in Penang, seven of them publicly listed, are using human resources strategies to ensure engineers’ salaries are eye catching enough.

A registered industry and education NGO called the 88 Captains and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) are developing HR management and training systems so that fresh engineering graduates can earn at least RM4,000 a month, while diploma-level personnel can get at least RM3,000. Called the Apprenticeship, ­Int­ern­ship, Reskilling and Upskill­ing (Airu) talents programme, it recently started in Penang and begins even when the engineers are still undergraduates.

“Airu is done through assessment of degree students starting from apprenticeships and their requisite internships.

“There’s no reason not to give them premium salaries after they graduate because they are deem­ed to have been ‘home-grown’ by those companies even before the students earn their bachelor’s degrees,” said 88 Captains chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ooi Eng Hock.

A check on recent online job advertisements shows that junior electrical engineers start at as low as RM2,500 a month. Offers for fresh mechanical engineering graduates tend to be higher, at about RM3,800 a month, and for most other fields, the starting pay of engineers tends to be a little over RM3,000.

Under Airu’s apprenticeships and internships, Ooi said local factories guide the under­gra­duates so that they would be uniquely suited for the companies after completing their ­studies. The students can then assimilate with the companies’ work culture, specific machinery and operating systems, and thus, from the perspective of those factories, they will not be “fresh graduates”.

As for those with technical and vocational education and training (TVET) diplomas, Ooi said Airu would allow them to skip the degree route and sign up for a master programme being developed by USM.

“The master programme is about reskilling and upskilling those who have started working after earning TVET diplomas, and should be finalised by the last quarter.

“It is now being brainstormed in USM with all relevant stake­­holders,” Ooi added.

He said eligibility to join Airu’s master programme will consider factors such as the amount of work experience of diploma holders, and it is not meant to compete with degree programmes of ­tertiary institutions. He said a starting pay of RM4,000 was also the target of the Higher Education Ministry’s Research and Industry-Infused Incubator, led by the Malaysian Electrical and Electronics Consor­tium comprising 19 public universities headed by USM.

“For TVET diploma holders, the minimum pay of RM3,000 is as per the government’s goal,” he said.

Key companies that are part of Airu include Vitrox Corporation, UWC, Hotayi Electronics, Swift Bridge Technologies, M Summit Group, MyCO2 Group, ASP Medi­cal Group, Solarvest, Sky Resour­ces Group, YBS International and Chung Chambers, Advocates & Associates.

Launched simultaneously with Airu last week was the Intangible Asset Commercialisation & Stra­te­gy Association, a grouping meant to empower youths not only in innovation but also in protecting, valuing and commercialising their ideas. Ooi believes that collectively, all these initiatives will help the country retain local talent rather than lose them to other countries.

“We need to start small by encouraging local talent developed in Penang and the northern region to remain here,” he said.

Present at Airu’s launch were Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow and USM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Seri Dr Abdul Rahman Mohamed.