Embarking on a new journey at tertiary level is never easy yet, possible and available for almost everybody in

Malaysia. The future graduates must have a lot in their mind in search of the most suitable course that could

thought that they can be teachers after graduating. Therefore, this alarming finding has called for a discussion,

so that these young graduates will be more informed of what awaits them in the future.

The transition from school goers to tertiary beings is an exciting yet, challenging phase for almost everybody.

A step that will determine someone’s pathway, which makes it fundamentally crucial (Shah & Jain, 2025). This

can also be translated that one choice that is so powerful could be a game changer. Therefore, soon-to-be

undergraduates have to surround themselves with numerous options at the very beginning through programs

conducted by IPTAs and IPTSs at their schools and other places such as One Segamat and Angsana in Johor.

These resourceful programs are led by educational institutions themselves in order to gather potential

diploma graduates with the ability to communicate professionally in any environment.

According to Mahadi (2017), teacher education can be understood by the procedures and policies related to

preparing teachers to be great source of references and reliable holistically. In achieving such idea,

Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (KPM) has embarked on multiple programs to be offered especially to

future-to-be teachers for instance through Program Ijazah Sarjana Muda Perguruan (PISMP) for students who

have Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM), Sijil Tinggi Agama

Malaysia (STAM) and Matriculation year 2024 (Moe, 2024).

Moreover, Malaysian government has highlighted numerous other programs that could offer a place to be a

teacher under KPM through the Institute of Teacher Education Malaysia (IPG), which is now rebranding to be

Language for Professional Communication (LG120), is a program offered by UiTM Melaka and UiTM Johor

in 2018 (Razali et al., 2021). This is another brilliant program that has attracted hundreds of students who have

the interest in pursuing a language course aside from TESL. LG120 is a new hope for many as it offers

tremendous career choices from translators to curators and many more including corporate communication

officers according to an article entitled Career Opportunities (2025) that can be found on UiTM Malacca’s

website. These various choices are believed to swamp potential students to enrol with the program thus,

eventually producing promising future employees that can contribute professionally for any employers without

a doubt.

The landscape of LG120 program has evolved throughout the years in parallel with the market demand these

days as we are not merely grooming students to further their tertiary education to the next degree level, but

A round table discussion (RTD) is a normal practice particularly to better equip graduates with promising

career paths that they are longing for when enrolling with their chosen courses. A triggered finding was

discovered through the recent LG120 RTD when one of the respondents highlighted that there are an alarming

number of LG120 students who are planning to teach after graduating. This has called for a discussion and the

reason this concept paper is written. The misconception of idea on the career pathway is concerning as they

might think that this program is another TESL program which is not quite true and need to be addressed

pronto.

At the first place, LG120 does not offer a spot as a teacher especially when it comes to KPM. Students have to

understand and be more informed of the career options await them which are available on UiTM Johor and

UiTM Malacca’s website. They make it clear through the list and none mentions being a teacher. It is worrying

enrol with KPM through programs such as Program Ijazah Sarjana Muda Perguruan (PISMP) and Program

Diploma Pascasiswazah Pendidikan (PDPP) (Moe, 2024). This means that although LG120 program does not

permit a direct spot as a teacher, the students still have the alternatives to be become ones with different routes.

They still have to enrol themselves with KPM programs for either diploma or degree to guarantee a place to

serve for the government and its people (Nordin et al., 2021).

Another crucial understanding that undergraduates must decipher is IPTAs are not the only bodies involved

with teacher education as our country is working closely with IPTSs and IPG, definitely, in grooming them to

teach at both primary and secondary schools nationwide (Said et al., 2022). It is the educational community’s

Figure 1 shows the educational bodies that are working hard on supply chain to cater to the needs of school

teachers and some of them are UiTM, UPSI, UPM and many others (Nordin, 2021). From such information,

the perspective can be broadened to the understanding of the collaboration of those institutions with KPM. As

for the case of LG120 students, they need to join the programs offered by the selected institutions after

graduating if they meant to join the teaching profession under KPM which also tells that their journey towards

such goal is longer than those graduating with education background like TESL.

Aside from aiming working as teachers under KPM with the alternative ways mentioned, these LG120

undergraduates do have other option teaching at private and international schools. This is deemed possible as

one of UiTM Johor’s graduating LG120 students is currently working as a teacher assistant at a private

collaboration happening with higher education institutions (HEIs), such as SEGi University College, UCSI

University, University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), and Kirkby International College in providing places

for local teachers to obtain academic and professional qualifications so that they can provide service in the

international and private schools.

Therefore, the misconception that LG120 graduates are able to join teacher education under KPM like TESL

has been discussed and highlighted which resorted to the idea that they still score a chance in teaching

profession yet, the route is not the same and direct. They either have to enrol with KPM programs to get a

qualification after graduating from LG120 program or get themselves involved with private institutions to still

earn a certificate to join the international or private schools. Hence, choosing the right course and pathway is a