KUALA LUMPUR (June 7): The government will be rolling out a series of initiatives to ease access to upskilling programs at a large scale, in a bid to address the skills gaps in the local workforce, said Economy Minister Mohd Rafizi Ramli. 

Rafizi said the gap between demand and supply of skills is growing bigger, and such intervention to pivot local workers' skills to be more demand-driven — closer to what the industry demands — is necessary. 

Against this backdrop, he stressed that retraining and workforce development must be increased to a scale never seen before. 

“In the next few months, we will be rolling out a series of initiatives to ease access to upskilling programmes at a large scale, so that we tilt the supply-demand imbalance. We have a few pilot tests, and one of the pilot tests is on digital and technology, because it is actually a lot easier to scale up digital and tech compared to other workforces or professions. 

“We hope once we roll out the national scale upskilling for digital and tech, that will give us a glimpse of some smart ways of how we will be able to tilt this supply-demand imbalance of the workforce,” Rafizi said at the launch of Deloitte Southeast Asia's Regional Capability Centre on Wednesday (June 7). 

The Pandan Member of Parliament cited the latest estimate by the World Bank on the talent gap, saying Malaysia needs to create another two million high-skilled jobs to match with developed Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries for skills.

Rafizi said that creating a supportive environment for labour mobility is also needed, given that it would not be sufficient to train without also figuring out how to place the right talent in the right jobs. 

“Talent planning must be active and deliberate, and we must adapt and challenge our assumptions about what makes a good worker. Taking a skills-first approach and enabling our talent to serve the region would address the structural problems of our economy as we move up the value chain,” he added.

To address the skill gaps, Rafizi said the country also needs to maintain high economic growth to create high-quality jobs. 

“That was why the Ministry of Economy never shifted its attention from the importance of aggregate demand, business creation, innovation, and selecting high-growth, high-value industries to invest in. 

“Whatever version of the future of work looks like, it would only be an optimistic one if there is an engine of growth that creates high-skilled jobs. Economic growth is, therefore, a hygiene factor — a fundamental necessity — for this ministry," he said. 

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