50 per cent skilled workers to be produced by 2020

by **Cals** Thu 05 Jun 2014, 03:17

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Bernama

Wednesday, 04 June 2014 19:27

KUALA TERENGGANU (June 4): The government targets to produce 50 per cent skilled workers in various fields, towards making Malaysia a competitive, developed nation by 2020.

Human Resources Deputy Minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Abd Muttalib, said currently, the country had only 28 per cent skilled workers and the figure was targeted to increase to 33 per cent next year.

"In 2020, the country is expected to have 13 million workers and about six million of them should be skilled workers in various fields."

Ismail said this after the convocation ceremony here today, for 116 trainees who did the Malaysian Skills Certificate course, organised by Pusat Latihan QAD Sdn Bhd, in collaboration with the Skills Development Department under the Human Resources Ministry.

Asked on the lack of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) school-leavers who took up skills training, he said that only 10 per cent of school students chose the vocational field.

However, he said, in developed countries like Australia and South Korea, about 40 per cent of the students opted for vocational or skills training.

"To be a developed nation, priority should be given to developing skills. So parents should not place importance only on academic achievements for their children's success," he said.

Ismail also lauded the efforts of the accredited skills training centres in producing skilled workers, with 1,200 such training centres nationwide now, offering courses in various fields like oil and gas, motor mechanics, automotive, hotel management, culinary, tailoring and welding.

He said since the skills training programme was introduced in 1986, it had trained about 1.3 million people in various fields.

Ismail said the government had allocated RM330 million each year for the programme, through the Skills Development Fund Corportion.

"But the amount is still insufficient to produce skilled workers in bigger numbers, and I fully support if the government could increase the allocation up to RM1 billion," he added.