Vignaesvaran (second right) witnesses the exchange of agreement between OUM president/vice-chancellor Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Anuwar Ali (right) and Impian Helang managing director Rita Krishnan during the ceremony. — Bernama photo
KUALA LUMPUR: The government has approved an allocation of RM77 million to the 1Malaysia Outplacement Centre to help retrenched workers gain the necessary skills to secure jobs.
The Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) under the Human Resource Ministry is expected to help some 8,000 retrenched workers by providing them skills through various training and placing them back into the job market.
“Every year, around 15,000 to 16,000 people are retrenched, while the unemployment rate stands at 3.1 per cent,” said HRDF CEO Datuk CM Vignaesvaran Jeyandran during the launch of the Centre of Excellence for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) at the Open Universiti (OUM) here yesterday.
The Outplacement centre is expected to start bringing in retrenched employees by the second quarter of 2016.
“Countries such as Japan and South Korea do have such centres, therefore we are trying to emulate it here and stabilise the job market. Employers always come to us saying employees do not have the skills, so we will give them the skills required by the employer,” he added.
Vignaesvaran also said that once the programme was in full force, more centres would be opened nationwide and in every district because currently the centres are only based in Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak. — Bernama
The trainings are free and funded by the government with the expectation that ‘students’ are equipped with the skills needed to improve themselves thus securing themselves the right job.
Meanwhile, during his keynote speech at the CPD launch, Vignaesvaran said the HRDF was going through a transformation process.
“Therefore we are moving away and going into a demand based, where companies dictate what should be done and every single training provided is to be certified by someone, there needs to be proper certification,” he said.
The CPD was launched by the Institute of Professional Development (IPD) while Vignaesvaran officially launched the Professional Certification Programmes entrusted by IPD to Impian Helang Sdn Bhd, the pillar of support for the development of professionals.
Also present at the event were OUM President/Vice-Chancellor Prof Tan Sri Anuwar Ali, METEOR Sdn Bhd CEO Professor Ahmad Hashem, Impian Helang Sdn Bhd managing director Rita Krishnan and IPD director Associate Professor Yon Rosli Daud. — Bernama