This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 10, 2025 - November 16, 2025

There is a disconnect between the practical skills required by industry and what is being taught in colleges and universities, posing a challenge to building a future-ready talent pipeline. This is despite Malaysia’s proactive efforts to roll out upskilling programmes for the workforce.

The problem stems from the fact that many of these programmes remain supply-driven, designed largely by training providers with minimal input from employers regarding real-world job requirements.

Consequently, graduates often leave with credentials that fail to match industry needs, leading to underemployment, particularly among tech degree holders navigating an increasingly fast-evolving job landscape.

A global trend that is already evident in Malaysia shows that fresh graduates, often lacking practical experience or artificial intelligence (AI) literacy, are finding it increasingly difficult to secure employment, as AI continues to redefine and automate many entry-level roles.

“Too many graduates enter the job market with theoretical knowledge but lack exposure to real-world tools, industry practices or the digital fluency employers now expect, especially when it comes to working alongside AI systems,” says Razin Rozman, founder and group CEO of Edvance, a human capital development platform.

The qualifying requirements in the current upskilling and training programmes are often unclear or overly restrictive and, in some cases, approval processes can take far too long, delaying access to critical training for both individuals and companies.

“Businesses simply cannot afford to wait months to fill talent gaps or upskill employees on essential tools and technologies. In order to stay competitive in the digital economy, there needs to be more agile, responsive and business-aligned training mechanisms that move at the speed of industry,” he says.

Additionally, access to training is mismatched. A multitude of barriers including geographic, economic and institutional inequalities exclude underprivileged communities from high-quality programmes. Training infrastructure in certain states are also left under-resourced, resulting in an even bigger challenge for locals.

To tackle these gaps, Razin says Malaysia must make a shift towards a demand-led and industry-embedded model that is inspired by regional best practices. Solutions must cover the full human capital lifecycle, from recruitment and onboarding to upskilling, retention and workforce planning.

Furthermore, systemic change for underrepresented groups must be driven by government-linked companies (GLCs) and the private sector.

Edvance itself has been a strong proponent for Malaysia to adopt a scalable, inclusive and industry-relevant talent development model, especially in areas like AI, chip design, cybersecurity and digital services.

Its approach mirrors the UK-style national apprenticeship pathway, where individuals are trained based on apprenticeships within companies with a curriculum co-designed by employers to ensure direct alignment with industry needs.

“We need to reimagine how we prepare graduates for employment by both academic certifications and with workplace-based learning, apprenticeships as well as direct industry involvement. By doing so, we can ensure that Malaysian graduates don’t just survive the AI transition, they thrive in it,” says Razin.

Companies must also foster a culture of continuous learning by understanding that upskilling must become an ongoing part of professional growth rather than be left implemented as a one-time event in order to stay updated with the constant advancements being made in the technology industry.

This means shifting towards in-context learning through micro-learning, mentoring, stretch assignments and real-time exposure to tools and workflows.

“Sustainability comes from embedding learning into the everyday rhythm of work, not treating it as a siloed human resources function. That includes empowering managers to coach, integrating learning key performance indexes (KPIs) into performance reviews and giving employees space and time to grow,” says Razin.

He adds that this must be supported by a data-driven approach that can enable insights on skills gaps, performances and learning progress to personalise development and ensure measurable outcomes.

Razin urges Malaysia’s public and private stakeholders to look to other countries that have successfully addressed similar human capital challenges and to adapt proven strategies that can strengthen and future-proof the nation’s talent pipeline.

South Korea and Singapore are two countries that have addressed their issues in securing their talent pipeline by making decisive moves to align talent development with national economic strategies.

Razin says Malaysia could follow in their footsteps through internalising three key lessons, including sustaining public investment, enabling employer co-creation and facilitating multi-tiered talent development.

South Korea adopts a national-scale approach to cultivating AI talent by combining deep research ca-pacity with industry-ready training, establishing over 10 overseas AI graduate schools that offer fellowships in AI and semiconductor specialisations.

The government has also committed KRW100 trillion, which is equivalent to roughly RM300 billion, through its “AI Grand Transition Strategy” with initiatives like the Seoul City 10,000-Talent Pla, which aims to produce thousands of AI professionals annually through bootcamps and applied learning to sectors like chip design and manufacturing that are of high priority.

Meanwhile, Singapore has several efforts that are backed by billion-dollar funding to triple the local AI workforce to 15,000 by 2030.

The country has developed a flagship AI Apprenticeship Programme under its National AI Strategy 2.0 where paid apprentices are assigned to real corporate AI projects. They also have initiatives such as the TechSkills Accelerator, made to co-fund employer-led reskilling efforts, and the MySkillsFuture platform, where universities update applied AI programmes for individuals to seek out.

“Both countries demonstrate how strategic investment, institutional coordination and industry-led programme design can rapidly close AI talent gaps,” says Razin.

He adds that global players have also begun taking notice of this issue and are co-developing talent pipelines tailored to their hiring needs.

Firms in the US, such as Google and IBM, have co-created certification programmes aligned with real job requirements. Meanwhile, Chinese companies like Huawei and Alibaba have embedded hands-on tools and assessments into university curricula, ensuring graduates emerge with both credentials and workplace-ready capabilities.

“Malaysia must shift to this demand-led model. We need employers at the table co-developing curriculum, co-funding labs, offering real-world briefs and guaranteeing interview pipelines. But to remain agile and equitable, we must also ensure vendor neutrality,” says Razin.

“In a fragmented market where most firms are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), no single player can build world-class training alone. The solution is an industry-wide, co-engineered approach. Companies share needs and resources [while] academia provides depth.”

In addition to growing local talent, Malaysia can look into attracting global talent to complement the nation’s domestic capabilities by bringing in experienced professionals, researchers and specialists from various countries.

Having intellectuals from different backgrounds can inspire a diversity of ideas and build leadership capacity across critical sectors in Malaysia by fostering knowledge transfers and raising the standard of innovation.

Singapore and the United Arab Emirates are countries that have seen impacts on how open talent strategies can enhance their innovation ecosystem development.

According to Razin, entry-level tech talent gaps can be addressed within one to two years, provided the right interventions are put in place.

“These interventions include outcome-based training such as project-based apprenticeships, employer-led bootcamps, and skills programmes directly aligned to real job roles. With the right models, graduates and career-switchers can be made job-ready in a short time, especially in fields like software development, data analytics and cybersecurity.”

However, cultivating mid-level talent alongside leadership skills will require a longer runway, typically spanning three to five years.

Progress at this level will begin depending on retention, on-the-job learning and structured career progression within companies as higher- value roles require both a stronger grasp of technical expertise, domain depth, strategic thinking and robust leadership capabilities.

“Ultimately, closing the talent gap depends on ecosystem alignment across education, industry and government, supported by long-term funding, policy consistency and global openness. Malaysia must move beyond fragmented efforts to create a scalable, demand-driven talent pipeline that is globally competitive and future-ready,” says Razin.

In July, Edvance entered into a partnership with Kumpulan Modal Perdana (KMP), a local technology venture capital (VC) firm that plays a dual role — it supports viable start-ups while ensuring their alignment with national talent development priorities in key sectors such as AI, semiconductors and digitalisation.

Venture capital firms play a crucial role in guiding start-ups to embed strong human capital and culture-building strategies from the outset, ensuring that talent development grows in tandem with the company’s expansion, says Yarham Yunus, CEO of KMP.

By prioritising organisational design, leadership development and early planning, VCs can help their portfolio companies build more resilient, scalable teams.

KMP and Edvance are also working closely in co-creating new programmes and collaborative models to serve as a blueprint for more GLCs and government agencies to replicate such frameworks and contribute in training talent from underprivileged communities.

“Our partnership with Edvance is a very timely one. There are plenty of market and economic headwinds that a start-up must face, such as human capital and talent development, which should not be a pain point.

“Ecosystem partners such as Edvance can provide tailored learning and development programmes, role-specific onboarding, project-based upskilling and technical leadership development, designed around the real operational needs of high-growth start-ups,” says Yarham.

Moving forward, KMP plans to expand its collaboration with Edvance by looking into talent analytics, benchmarking and regional knowledge-sharing to enable portfolio companies to make smarter workforce decisions while building future-ready teams.

“We hope this partnership will raise the talent bar across KMP’s ecosystem and serve as a national model for how GLCs and strategic investors can drive human capital outcomes alongside financial returns,” Yarham says.

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