Malaysian workers trail Singapore, Philippines in English
KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — Malaysians workers are lagging behind their Singaporean and Filipino counterparts in their command of English, according to Jobstreet.com's assessment of regional employees.
Among entry-level jobseekers, Malaysians scored an average of 68 per cent while the Philippines and Singapore averaged 70 and 75 per cent respectively.
At the senior manager level, Filipinos topped the list followed by Singaporeans, Malaysians, Thailand and Indonesia, in that order.
“This is a worrying trend, since English communication skills is one of the top five criteria employers list as hiring requirement,” said Chook Yuh Yng, JobStreet.com's country manager for Malaysia.
The recruitment agency said that over 1.5 million jobseekers around South East Asia have taken its English Language Assessment (ELA) test since 2009.
Within Malaysia, journalists scored the highest with 83 per cent, followed by those in healthcare (80) and top management (78) while the weakest groups were general workers (60), industrial engineers (63) and administrative staff (65).
