Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) is out to make its graduates more employable with China-based investors by increasing their Mandarin language fluency.

UMS Confucius Institute (Malaysia) director Professor Dr Chong Khin Phin said the university was signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Kibing Group to teach its employees how to communicate fluently in Mandarin.

Kibing has reportedly sealed a RM2 billion silica sand processing and solar panel manufacturing project in Sabah.

The group, which aims to employ nearly 2,000 local workers, is expected to be fully operational in Sabah in November.

"With these investments, I believe our local graduates will have more job opportunities.

"What the institute is doing is providing locals with basic Mandarin conversation skills so they can speak and communicate well with their employers in the future," he said after awarding language course completion certificates to the first batch of 40 trainees at UMS here.

Chong added that there were some legal aspects to be finalised before the UMS-Kibing deal was signed.

He said the institute, established in 2019, offered up to Level 6 Mandarin language courses.

Present were Confucius Institute (China) director Deng Rong and UMS Registrar Luqman Ridha representing Vice-Chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Kasim Mansur.

Karen Chong, 37, who received her certificate today after completing the language course, said she was satisfied after achieving a personal goal to finish the third level of the Mandarin course.

The legal adviser at a Sabah-based utility company said she signed up for the course in 2019 and paid RM100 for each level.

"Although I had some basic knowledge of the language, with proper learning, I can now speak with proper grammar and identify words more easily than before."