Human capital is a crucial resource for the growth and development of any country, and Malaysia is no exception.
IT’S fair to say that many Malaysians don’t take training seriously, even if the bill has already been footed.
The levy paid by employers continues to be under-utilised and the Human Resources Development Corp (HRD Corp) has had to hound employers to use the money for training.
Millions of ringgit from the levy are being left idle by companies from the mandatory deductions.
In 2022, HRD Corp collected about RM1.81bil and disbursed around RM758.4mil, leaving a levy balance of RM1.05bil from the 81,706 employers. In 2023, it has projected to collect RM2.2bil and disburse RM1.7bil.
In desperation, HRD Corp has decided that levies left unutilised after two years will be forfeited.
Many bosses are reluctant to allow their staff to attend upskilling courses for fear that their operations and productivity will be affected.
They expect courses to end within a day, if possible, and if it’s a five-day training session, employees are left to face grumpy looks from their superiors.
Staff, on the other hand, sometimes think training is a drag, displaying indifference.
Some senior level workers, especially in managerial ranks, think they know everything or fear their inadequacies exposed if they’re in a physical class with their colleagues.
An out-of-base team building outing seems to be the only way to sign up workers, but if the sessions aren’t properly organised or structured, they will end up being a trip remembered for silly games, with little impact for self-improvement.
Everyone needs training. Learning is a life-long journey. Only an ignorant and egotistical person will insist there’s no need to pick up new skills.
For companies, it’s about future-proofing their organisation and for workers, it’s about re-tooling and upgrading themselves to increase their value.
Human capital is a crucial resource for the growth and development of any country, and Malaysia is no exception.
Today, Malaysia enjoys a literacy rate of 96.1% and ranks 25th out of 141 countries globally in terms of human capital development, becoming the second highest ranked South-East Asian country in the survey, just behind Singapore.
But that’s not enough. The Government, via the HRD Corp, is correct to set a target of inculcating the spirit of lifelong learning in all Malaysians, fostering a conducive and collaborative environment for training and development among talents and industry players.
And strengthening the upskilling, reskilling and multiskilling ecosystem for trainers and trainees is a further step forward.
To kick off these initiatives, the week-long National Training Week (NTW) 2023 will be officiated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today.
It will encompass a week of nationwide training events and activities that bring together organisations and individuals from various backgrounds and industries and provide them with training and development opportunities.
Training programmes will be organised all over Malaysia and offered to all Malaysians on the house.
NTW will be championed by the Human Resources Ministry and HRD Corp. It will feature other government ministries and agencies, industry players, industry associations, individuals, academia, training providers and more.
The target is 125,000 trainees nationwide from May 22-28, involving 5,000 trainers, training providers and collaborators.
There will be 5,000 courses across hundreds of skill areas with a targeted 500,000 training hours.
It’s unprecedented as these courses are worth RM250mil in training value, but it will all be free this week.
Nearly 18,000 courses are offered online and offline as displayed on the NTW website, with over 50,000 participants from children, teenagers to senior citizens.
There are eight regional launches happening across Malaysia, including in Johor, Sarawak, Negri Sembilan, Sabah, Pahang, Penang and Melaka, followed by the finale event in Putrajaya today.
Kudos to the Human Resources Ministry and HRD for having this week-long programme, which brings students, higher learning institutions and industry players together to upgrade the skills and knowledge of our workforce, to enable them to meet industry demands and expectations.
As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
