Top Job Demand for Engineers in Malaysia

High Job Demand for Qualified Top Engineers in Malaysia

Demand for qualified engineers in Malaysia is increasing. In order to succeed in the engineering field, students must choose a university that has the experience and facilities to equip them. In addition, soft skills such as an English speaking environment, leadership skills, communication skills and internship programs will help the graduate stand out and be very successful.

According to TalentCorp and the Institute of Labour Market Information and Analysis (ILMIA) under the Ministry of Human Resources (MOHR), engineering is one of the most critical occupations listed under The Critical Occupations List (COL) report. This report is developed using data from employers and provides a big picture of the skills and occupations in demand within the industries.

Research has shown that graduates with a good command of English has a 25% higher salary than those who don’t. In addition, choose universities where the engineering degrees are accredited by MQA and the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM).

You may also be interested to read:

• Top Engineering Degree Courses to Study in Malaysia
• Top 8 Engineering Courses to Study in Malaysia
• Top 10 Private Universities in Malaysia for Engineering Degree, Foundation & Diploma
• Top 10 Private Universities in Malaysia for Engineering
• Why Study the Foundation in Engineering at a Top Private University in Malaysia?
• Why is the Accreditation by Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) important in my Engineering Degree Studies at Private Universities in Malaysia?
• Education Pathway to Professional Engineer in Malaysia after Studying a BEM Accredited Engineering Degree

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Increased Job Demand for Engineers in Malaysia

Engineers are professionals with a degree qualification recognised by the Washington Accord for Engineers and are regulated and registered by the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM). A Professional Engineer is a person registered under Section 10(2) of the Registration of Engineers Act 1967 (Revised 2015).

In Malaysia, there are various sectors for our engineers to serve including consultation, research & development, construction, building services, maintenance, manufacturing, plantation, aviation, maritime, sales, and oil & gas industry, as well as institutions of higher learning like universities and colleges as a lecturer or a teaching engineer.

The Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) president David Lai Kong Phooi said the engineer to population ratio for developed nations is 1:100. For Malaysia with a population of 32 million, the number of engineers should be 300,000.

For Malaysia to become a developed nation, the engineer to population ratio must be 1:100. For Malaysia, with a population of 32 million, the number of engineers should be 300,000. Surprisingly, based on the Education Ministry’s statistics from 1997 to 2020, the average number of engineers produced per year by the local institutions of higher learning, excluding graduates from international universities is about 16,000. The cumulative total of all engineers produced from 1997 to 2020 is estimated to be about 400,000. The number of engineers may be currently surplus for Malaysia.

Unfortunately, the reality is that only 35% of the graduate engineers (GE) registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM). BEM is owned by the Malaysian government to administer the registration of PE. Although according to Malaysia’s law through the Registration of Engineers Act 1967 (Revised 2015), all practising engineers must be registered with the BEM as GE to work as an engineer legally. According to the statistic published by BEM in February 2020 (Figure 1), only 10% out of 142,000 registered Graduate Engineer (GE) successfully obtained the certification as Professional Engineer, which is less than 4% of all engineers in Malaysia.

At least five most common engineering fields run the country today, which are mechanical, chemical, electrical, electronic, and civil engineering. Civil engineering shows the highest number of registered Graduate Engineer followed by mechanical, electrical, electronic, and chemical engineering.

More than 50% of the total registered Graduate Engineer have been upgraded into Professional Engineer for at least two engineering disciplines which are civil and electrical engineering. For mechanical engineering, the number of Graduate Engineer converted into Professional Engineer is slightly less at about 40%. The least amount of converted Graduate Engineer into Professional Engineer status is demonstrated by chemical and electronic engineering.

This discrepancy could be due to various reasons. Many engineers don’t register with the BEM because their jobs don’t require them to make submissions to the authorities. Some choose to work overseas. Others leave the profession altogether. There’s also the possibility of a mismatch between the expectations of graduates and employers, which could result in unemployment.

While the number of varsity-trained engineers has been very encouraging in terms of meeting the country’s target, we’re still facing a shortage of engineers – perhaps not in terms of actual numbers, but in terms of employability, and retention of talents, within the engineering sector and with Malaysian companies, said Lai.

Based on Talent Corp’s Critical Occupation List, he said the highest demand for engineers are in the civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical disciplines.

Lai said there are many reasons why engineers turn to other jobs. For some, it could be a lack of interest in the field or for career advancement.

“The entry level remuneration of engineers is among the highest compared to graduates from other fields. But it’s common knowledge that engineers don’t advance far in terms of remuneration, status, position, and job satisfaction, in the later part of their career.

“So career advancement rather than low entry-level remuneration is probably a more compelling reason why many leave the profession.”

But to be a country of technology and innovation, Wong said, you need engineers. Since there are so few engineering students, we have to keep them in the industry.

“You need to be very strong in mathematics if you want to do well. There are so few science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students at secondary level. So, obviously we’re getting even less students coming into engineering at tertiary level.”

It’s easy for engineers to switch careers at a later stage of their careers because they’re very analytical and easy to train. If they want to go into consultancy, planning, finance, or investment, they can pick it up with some training. But the reverse is not true. Non-engineers will find it hard to switch to this profession.

According to BEM, the estimated starting salary of engineers, including allowances in the civil service in 2000 was RM1,800, while it was RM3,500 in 2021, an increase of almost 100% over 20 years.

BEM also said determining the minimum salary for engineers and engineering teams is outside of its jurisdiction, because according to Section 4(1)(d) of the Registration of Engineers Act 1967, BEM only serves to set the fee scale for professional engineering services.

Increase in job opportunities for Malaysian professionals within engineering & manufacturing: Michael Page

Malaysia has seen an increase in job opportunities within certain sectors in Q3 2021 in comparison to 2020, according to global recruitment firm Michael Page. There was also a noted growth in opportunities particularly within the marketing (+45%) and engineering & manufacturing (+22%) sectors.

The 22% increase in job opportunities for Malaysian professionals within engineering & manufacturing, the growth is particularly driven by the global demand for semiconductors and microchips created by the increased volume in consumer electronics production. Factories in Malaysia were also “pressured to maximise their output”, thus leading to a demand for specialists in semiconductor manufacturing.

Job Demand for Engineers in Malaysia According to ‘Critical Occupations List’ (COL) 2019/2020 by TalentCorp

Malaysia’s Critical Occupations List (COL) was created by the government to effectively monitor shortages and identify the country’s most in-demand skills. According to the new World Bank report, the COL is an innovative platform for keeping ahead of changing labour market demands associated with new technologies, automation, and Industry 4.0.

The Critical Occupations List (COL) is a set of occupations in demand that identifies the skills imbalance across 18 economic sectors in Malaysia. The 2019/2020 COL has 58 occupations listed. It aims to be the primary instrument to promote better coordination of human capital policies aimed at attracting, nurturing and retaining talent.

Collated on an annual basis by the Critical Skills Monitoring Committee (CSC), led by TalentCorp and the Institute of Labour Market Information and Analysis (ILMIA) under the Ministry of Human Resources (MOHR), the COL was developed based on recommended international practices. Its compilation process is based on regular consultations with the World Bank.

Because the COL is developed with the data from employers, it provides a big picture of the skills and occupations that are in demand within the industries. It also gives you a better idea of the occupations that will be prioritised by policymakers, especially in the aspects of immigration, education and upskilling opportunities.

COL will continue to expand to create a comprehensive map of Malaysia’s most demanded current and future skills and talent towards Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0.

For the engineering occupations, listed are:

• 2141 Industrial and Production Engineer
• 2142 Civil Engineer
• 2144 Mechanical Engineer
• 2146 Mining Engineer, Metallurgist and Related Professional
• 2149 Engineering Professional (Excluding Electrotechnology) Not Elsewhere Classified
• 2151 Electrical Engineer
• 2152 Electronic Engineer
• 2153 Telecommunications Engineers

Increase in Job Demand for Engineers in Malaysia & Globally

According to UNESCO, engineering has been, and will continue to be, challenged with
designing systems that facilitate education and healthcare, enhance quality of life, and help to eliminate global poverty. It considers that the development of technological
approaches that can help prevent or mitigate hostile acts76, reduce the impact of natural disasters, and motivate humans to reduce their use of the earth’s valuable resources, will be key challenges for engineering in the coming years.

Alongside these, we can expect that engineering will continue to play a key role in helping to avert environmental crises, as well as helping to reduce poverty – for example through engineers providing community infrastructure. Engineering already plays an important role in managing and conserving resources, from water to food, energy and materials. For example, engineering skills have been essential in ensuring the development of systems relating to water and wastewater treatment.

Given that some parts of the world still lack access to water, engineering skills will remain essential to ensure universal access to clean water and sanitation. Engineering has also been extensively involved in finding solutions to reducing carbon emissions alongside ensuring increased portions of the world’s population have access to sustainable power. Engineering’s role in this area is likely to continue to be important in the coming years, especially as in 2015 it was estimated that 2.8 billion people still did not have access to modern energy services, and that over 1.1 billion people were without electricity.

In addition, with the global population expected to grow to 9.7 billion by 2050,
engineering will become increasingly important in ensuring future food security. For example, by ensuring that there are sustainable food production systems in place that maintain ecosystems, and by helping to improve land and soil quality. Over and above these growth areas, UNESCO envisages new challenges for engineering across four key areas: materials, energy, information and systems and bioengineering.

Each of these fields will require engineers across a range of disciplines to ensure future innovations and success. Therefore, having sufficient numbers of engineering graduates and professionals focusing on engineering for development in these areas will be essential both now and in the future.

Urbanisation

According to the UN, in 2014 54% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. This is expected to increase to 66% by 2050, with the majority of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa. In absolute terms, the urban population of the world grew from 746 million in 1950 to 3.9 billion in 2014. This figure is expected to surpass six billion by 2045.

This urbanisation will come with its own challenges and engineers will be involved in meeting the needs of growing urban areas, such as ensuring that there is adequate housing, water, sanitation, electricity and telecommunications. Engineers can also help to ensure that those living in urban areas have a good quality of life, for example by reducing
congestion and pollution. According to the UN, “managing urban areas has become one of the most important development challenges of the 21st century.”

Engineering Fields that are high in demand in Malaysia

In a 2006 Report by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education, Mechanical engineering is viewed as the field of engineering most highly demanded in the future with a projected increase of 24% from 5 to 10 years (from an estimated number of engineers of 58000 to 72000).

About 8% of the respondents indicated a demand for other engineering fields, such as biomedical, computer engineering,
instrumentation and technology, marine technology, mechatronic, software engineering and process engineering.

According to the report, the demand is highest for: Mechanical Engineers, next is Electrical, Civil, Electronic and finally Chemical.

Salary for engineers in Malaysia

The average annual salary for an engineer in 2009 is RM90,744.

Shortage of Qualified Engineers in Malaysia

There is a shortage of qualified engineers in Malaysia suitable for the crucial role of overseeing construction projects and infrastructure development works, according to the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM).
IEM president Datuk Lim Chow Hock told StarBiz that there were only about 150,000 experienced engineers in Malaysia.

“We are still short of 50,000 to meet the requirement in the construction and infrastructure sectors. The experienced engineers are needed in the consultation and management departments,” he said. Lim added that the demand for consultation and management engineers for government construction and infrastructure projects would mitigate the impact of the slowdown taking place in the construction industry.

“About 70% of our members are engineers in the development and construction sectors. “They can easily be reabsorbed to play consultation and management roles for government projects,” he said.

Lim added that about 30% of the members were involved in the electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering industries. The IEM currently has about 43,000 members.

On the quality of the local engineering graduates, Lim said that there was concern on quality because a study done three years ago by IEM revealed that the local engineering graduates lacked certain fundamental understanding of engineering principles. “This is affecting their ability to execute their duties effectively.

This was the feedback from 11/11/2015 Malaysia short of 50,000 experienced engineers Business News | The Star Online

Job Prospects for Engineers in Malaysia

In the Third Outline Perspective Plan and the Eighth Malaysia plan, it is estimated that there will be a high demand for engineers where there are estimated 230,000 engineers and technicians for the year 2000 and the projected figure for 2010 is 470,000.  (Source OPP3/8MP/EPU). Engineering is a respected profession that pays well. On average, people who graduate with a degree in engineering earn higher salaries than those with other bachelor’s degrees. Studies indicate that there will be a shortage of engineers well into the 21^st century.

Furthermore, choose top private universities in Malaysia where the engineering degrees are accredited by MQA and the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM). Currently, according to BEM there are 11010 Professional Engineers and 81771 Graduate Engineers in Malaysia. Malaysia needs around 275,000 and 300,000 engineers in 5 and 10 years respectively.

In a 2006 Report by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education, Mechanical engineering is viewed as the field of engineering most highly demanded in the future with a projected increase of 24% from 5 to 10 years (from an estimated number of engineers of 58000 to 72000).

About 8% of the respondents indicated a demand for other engineering fields, such as biomedical, computer engineering, instrumentation and technology, marine technology, mechatronic, software engineering and process engineering. According to the report, the demand is highest for: Mechanical Engineers, next is Electrical, Civil, Electronic and finally Chemical.

Malaysia needs more than 1,000 engineers annually to meet industry demands, said Talent Corporation Malaysia (TalentCorp). TalentCorp CEO Johan Mahmood Merican said engineers in the electric and electronic (E&E) and oil and gas (O&G) sectors are highly sought after.

“The industry is hungry for engineers,” he said after opening the Sector Focus Career Fair 2014 at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) campus here.

Mirroring Johan Mahmood’s assessment was Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) Industry Talent Management Division director Mohamad Ismail Abu Bakar. He said there was a need for expertise in electric and electronic (E&E) , oil and gas (O&G), mechanical engineering and chemical engineering.

“This is based on the type of projects MIDA has approved for investments coming in,” he said.

Engineering Jobs in Demand in Malaysia Developed by the National Key Economic Activities (NKEAs)

• Electrical and Electronic, where manufacturing, research and development as well as design for Malaysian companies driving innovation will be focused upon.
• Oil and gas sector led by a well developed pool of local talent and companies that are able to compete globally.
• Green industries and services. Expertise in complex manufacturing and those in the solar and alternative energy sectors will be much sought after alongside those involved in the commercialisation of natural bio-diversity into high value products.

Electrical and electronics engineers form the core of various technology-ledcompanies in Malaysia.

In a report conducted by IPSOS Business Consulting in 2012 on the E&E Sector Study on the Supply-Demand of Talent in Malaysia, it is found that there is a shortage of Electrical & Electronic Engineers in Malaysia.

The E&E sector is an important contributor to Malaysia’s economy as it is one of the 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) in the country’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP). There are 1,900 active E&E companies which provide employment to over 350,000 people.

The report found that Fresh Graduates or Entry-level Talent Not Industry-Ready (lacks required skill-sets) therefore choosing a university that can provide the necessary industry relevant teaching and training is imperative.

Furthermore, Electrical and electronics engineers who possess solid analytical and communication skills will have a clear advantage over the others.

Telecommunication is the means of communicating through the transmission of signals. In today’s world, it is all around us – from 4G connectivity to streaming videos to mobile downloads, and so on.

The  IPSOS report identified eight key talent shortage areas in the E&E field and one of the areas in demand for Telecommunications Engineers. They are responsible for the analysis, design, implementation, optimization and enhancement of wireless telecommunications products and networks.

Top Ten highest paying jobs in Malaysia at Manager Level according to Jobstreet

Doctors, engineers and managers in the aviation specializations draw the highest pay with doctors earning the highest, with an average salary of RM9,500 per month.

1. Doctor                                      RM9,530
2. Engineering – Oil/Gas                 RM9,462
3. Aviation                                     RM9,406
4. Audit/Taxation                            RM9,226
5. Banking – Financial Services        RM9,100
6. Geophysics                                RM8,938
7. Publishing or Printing                   RM8,650
8. Engineering – Chemical                RM8,545
9. Engineering – Electronics              RM8,146
10. IT – Software                               RM8,112

Top Ten highest paying jobs in Malaysia at Senior Manager Level according to Jobstreet

The Average Salary Of SENIOR MANAGERS Is RM12,800 Across All Industries. It takes years of experience and expertise before one becomes a senior manager, but all that hard work pays off.

Overall, senior managers in specializations such as IT– Hardware, Quality Control/Assurance and Geophysics are the top highest paying job in this position.

1. IT – Hardware                                 RM18,100
2. Quality Control/Assurance               RM17,768
3. Geophysics                                    RM17,500
4. Property/Real Estate                       RM16,917
5. Engineering – Electrical                   RM16,503
6. Publishing/Printing                          RM16,500
7. Corporate Strategy                          RM15,606
8. Engineering Oil/Gas                         RM15,307
9. Sales – Corporate                             RM14,815
10. Engineering – Civil                            RM14,768