Data on Pay Gap between ITE, Polytechnic and University Graduates

Dr Wan Rizal asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Ministry will consider collecting data on the pay gap between ITE, polytechnic and university graduates over the course of their careers; and (b) if so, what steps will the Ministry be taking.

The Government monitors overall wage levels by qualification and age through the Ministry of Manpower’s Comprehensive Labour Force Survey. Beyond this, the Ministry of Education has been working with the Institutes of Higher Learning to pilot tracer surveys that track our graduates’ employment status and wages five years after graduation. This will complement the Graduate Employment Survey that the IHLs conduct six months after graduation and allows us to track key trends on outcomes post-graduation.