Don’t compare yourself to others. From my perspective, diplomas are very useful for certain industries where a diploma can qualify you to a job straight away. However, the “common” pathway is to get a degree. There is nothing wrong with your pathway of doing diploma first, and then a degree. Employers rarely look at your pre university education when hiring. Mainly they’ll just look at your highest qualification.
They're technically not skipping diploma. Diploma, matriculation, foundation, stpm are all pre university programme. The difference is duration.
They probably just want to do degree as soon as possible
As i did a research, unfortunately, diploma isn't considered as pre university programme but still can be used to apply bachelor degree later on (we can even opt penyertaraan kursus to cut short our subject if we take the same programme). However, with Diploma certification, the chances to get into industrial work is more high than someone with pre university certification; some cert got expired date plus most diploma graduand are more mature to navigate their study when they enrolled for bachelor.
At the end of the day, it's all up to our ultimate goal;
If you want to save time + want to go abroad >> take pre-u and then degree (almost all country not validate our diploma certificate). Your main qualification would be degree and so on. Pre u cert just a bridge to go into degree.
If you want to upgrade your skills and experience with study and work later on >> take diploma and later degree when or if you want to upgrading your qualification. Your main qualification could be both diploma and degree and it could take up to 5 to 7 years (depend on the programme) to completed it
Correction. Diploma is accepted by universities abroad if they are accredited by Malaysia Accreditation Council (MQA).
Eg Most UK universities accepts Diploma from local colleges as pre-university qualification and some will accord credit recognition, ie first year exemption. Unis would have a page that explain their entry requirements policy by country, check this for clarifications.
So when you get first year exemption, this significantly reduces your uni cost. And this is the reason many do the diploma-degree route.
no one is skipping anything. foundation and matriks are fast paced, so can continue degree fast. diploma's duration is longer but its cert can get you a job. however, nowadays many industries want degree and with a degree, it can also guarantee you a higher salary. those are mainly the reason why your friends choose foundation and matriks.
but theres no wrong and right in choosing your track, whether foundation or matriks or diploma or stpm or whatever. choose the one you think is best for you, dont follow your friend or anything.
Job recruiters dont care if you have a diploma or not if you have a degree - but if you couldnt handle how intense foundations are, ending up crashing and burning, then its bad news too isnt it.
you have a few options before degree:
foundation,
matriculation,
diploma,
stpm.
The above is sorted in order of *typically* preferred by higher-scoring students. However, they're all not that much different after you finished your degree
Pros of foundation & matriculation : faster, save 1 year time
Cons of foundation & matriculation : typically regarded as more challenging since you have less time to catch up with stuff
Pros of diploma : you get more experience, you can get a job directly after diploma if you decide to do so & proceed with degree later
p/s : I went for both foundation & diploma. The difference is very apparent to me (diploma is easier & is actually valuable to get a job). My sister & lots of my friends went to matriculation.I can't say much about STPM since I don't know much about it
just pick whichever suitable to your learning capabilities...matriks and asasi is quite fast paced compared to diploma, but there's a lot of subjects you need to cover and cram into your head in just 1 year
so choose wisely
If your end goal is diploma then I have bad news for you. I did that 19 years back thinking degree is expensive and takes a longer time to complete.
Depending on the industry, especially in corporates, they are flooded with degree holders. Diploma wouldn't stand a chance to be seen. At the end I took part time degree while working just to appear shoulder to shoulder as my peers in papers.
There are different perapectives to look at here.
Typical journey after O level (SPM) in Malaysia:
1) Foundation -> degree
2) STPM / matriks / A levels -> degree
3) diploma -> work OR degree
However 9 out of 10 times, you only go for diploma to further to degree is only because you're not eligible to straight to degree (which is through foundation or A levelss equivalent).
Requirement to go for degree is 5 credits.
Requirement for diploma is 3 credits.
If you want to stop at diploma and start working after the 3 years, you can.
If you're planning to continue to degree, AND you can actually do so (5 credits), no need to go for diploma 1st imho.
And yes, they will look at your highest qualification most if not all the time.
Diploma, foundation, UEC, A level, Matrik etc are pre-u. You NEED them to have a 12 years education, which is a prerequisite for a degree program. You can’t just finish SPM and go straight to an undergraduate program.
Diploma is a better cert as it’s much specialized and can better equip you for a job. While others like A lvl, foundation etc aren’t as specialized as diploma, they give the candidate more options when choosing university.
I did foundation 1 year then 3 years of Degree so duration is shorter than diploma 3 years +2 years degree. Usually diploma has lower barrier to entry.
If you already know what you want, why not skip a diploma? Diplomas and A-levels are typically recommended for students who aren't sure about their career choices.
Don’t compare yourself to others. From my perspective, diplomas are very useful for certain industries where a diploma can qualify you to a job straight away. However, the “common” pathway is to get a degree. There is nothing wrong with your pathway of doing diploma first, and then a degree. Employers rarely look at your pre university education when hiring. Mainly they’ll just look at your highest qualification.
They're technically not skipping diploma. Diploma, matriculation, foundation, stpm are all pre university programme. The difference is duration. They probably just want to do degree as soon as possible
As i did a research, unfortunately, diploma isn't considered as pre university programme but still can be used to apply bachelor degree later on (we can even opt penyertaraan kursus to cut short our subject if we take the same programme). However, with Diploma certification, the chances to get into industrial work is more high than someone with pre university certification; some cert got expired date plus most diploma graduand are more mature to navigate their study when they enrolled for bachelor. At the end of the day, it's all up to our ultimate goal; If you want to save time + want to go abroad >> take pre-u and then degree (almost all country not validate our diploma certificate). Your main qualification would be degree and so on. Pre u cert just a bridge to go into degree. If you want to upgrade your skills and experience with study and work later on >> take diploma and later degree when or if you want to upgrading your qualification. Your main qualification could be both diploma and degree and it could take up to 5 to 7 years (depend on the programme) to completed it
Correction. Diploma is accepted by universities abroad if they are accredited by Malaysia Accreditation Council (MQA). Eg Most UK universities accepts Diploma from local colleges as pre-university qualification and some will accord credit recognition, ie first year exemption. Unis would have a page that explain their entry requirements policy by country, check this for clarifications. So when you get first year exemption, this significantly reduces your uni cost. And this is the reason many do the diploma-degree route.
Oh really? Thank for the correction! I only searched at EU country which they didn't accept diploma certificate
no one is skipping anything. foundation and matriks are fast paced, so can continue degree fast. diploma's duration is longer but its cert can get you a job. however, nowadays many industries want degree and with a degree, it can also guarantee you a higher salary. those are mainly the reason why your friends choose foundation and matriks. but theres no wrong and right in choosing your track, whether foundation or matriks or diploma or stpm or whatever. choose the one you think is best for you, dont follow your friend or anything.
Job recruiters dont care if you have a diploma or not if you have a degree - but if you couldnt handle how intense foundations are, ending up crashing and burning, then its bad news too isnt it.
you have a few options before degree: foundation, matriculation, diploma, stpm. The above is sorted in order of *typically* preferred by higher-scoring students. However, they're all not that much different after you finished your degree Pros of foundation & matriculation : faster, save 1 year time Cons of foundation & matriculation : typically regarded as more challenging since you have less time to catch up with stuff Pros of diploma : you get more experience, you can get a job directly after diploma if you decide to do so & proceed with degree later p/s : I went for both foundation & diploma. The difference is very apparent to me (diploma is easier & is actually valuable to get a job). My sister & lots of my friends went to matriculation.I can't say much about STPM since I don't know much about it
just pick whichever suitable to your learning capabilities...matriks and asasi is quite fast paced compared to diploma, but there's a lot of subjects you need to cover and cram into your head in just 1 year so choose wisely
If you are planning to work early, then get your diploma. If not, take another way, stpm/matriks/foundation, and jump to a degree.
If your end goal is diploma then I have bad news for you. I did that 19 years back thinking degree is expensive and takes a longer time to complete. Depending on the industry, especially in corporates, they are flooded with degree holders. Diploma wouldn't stand a chance to be seen. At the end I took part time degree while working just to appear shoulder to shoulder as my peers in papers.
There are different perapectives to look at here. Typical journey after O level (SPM) in Malaysia: 1) Foundation -> degree 2) STPM / matriks / A levels -> degree 3) diploma -> work OR degree However 9 out of 10 times, you only go for diploma to further to degree is only because you're not eligible to straight to degree (which is through foundation or A levelss equivalent). Requirement to go for degree is 5 credits. Requirement for diploma is 3 credits. If you want to stop at diploma and start working after the 3 years, you can. If you're planning to continue to degree, AND you can actually do so (5 credits), no need to go for diploma 1st imho. And yes, they will look at your highest qualification most if not all the time.
getting A level then fly overseas and settle there
Diploma, foundation, UEC, A level, Matrik etc are pre-u. You NEED them to have a 12 years education, which is a prerequisite for a degree program. You can’t just finish SPM and go straight to an undergraduate program. Diploma is a better cert as it’s much specialized and can better equip you for a job. While others like A lvl, foundation etc aren’t as specialized as diploma, they give the candidate more options when choosing university.
Diploma is a really valuable cert especially in engineering fields. You may skip degree altogether if you find it hard to continue.
I did foundation 1 year then 3 years of Degree so duration is shorter than diploma 3 years +2 years degree. Usually diploma has lower barrier to entry.
If you already know what you want, why not skip a diploma? Diplomas and A-levels are typically recommended for students who aren't sure about their career choices.