Help us help you get back on your feet

By DATUK R SEGARAJAH
Secretary-General of the Human Resources Ministry

While lucrative jobs may be getting scarce for average Malaysians, it seems strange that they would turn up their noses at a chance to get training and placement, with an allowance, to boot.

Why is it that Sukardi, a youth from a village in Sumatra, can traverse the breadth of the island and cross the Straits of Malacca to seek employment in Malaysia, whereas the Malaysian youth cocooned in the safety of say, Shah Alam, provided with training to meet new challenges, and given a monthly allowance and a guaranteed job, prefers to remain unemployed, awaiting that elusive ideal job that may never come.

It is true that Malaysia has not been spared the consequences of the global economic slowdown, given its position as one of the world’s leading exporters of manufactured products.

The global decline in the demand for manufactured products has hit Malaysian exporters hard, with its rippling effect on Malaysian workers, particularly those engaged in the manufacturing sector.

As of July 7, 2009, statistics compiled by the Human Resources Ministry, showed a cumulative figure of 38,732 workers retrenched, due to the prevailing economic crisis.

Of this figure, 29,712 were permanently terminated while 9,020 accepted voluntary termination from their employment. In addition, 40,662 workers suffered pay-cuts and 4,112 workers were temporarily laid-off.

Given these circumstances, you would expect that these workers would be clamouring for new employment opportunities as soon as possible to enable them maintain their current standard of living.

The Government, in its determined effort to remain resilient and face the onslaught of spiralling unemployment figures, has been proactive, seizing this negative economic climate as an opportunity to re-skill the affected workforce.

A hefty sum of RM650mil has been allocated under both the Economic Stimulus Packages to enable the ministry to undertake various training and placement programmes to not only reduce unemployment but also to provide employment opportunities for Malaysians.

The Train and Place programmes that target youths, unemployed graduates and retrenched workers, are aimed at equipping participants with skills that will increase their employability to meet the challenges of the new economy.

The costs incurred for the duration of the three-to-six-month training is borne by the Government.

In addition, throughout the training period, trainees receive monthly allowances that range from RM500 to RM800 from the Government and are guaranteed job placements upon completion of their training.

A Community Employment Support Services (CESS) programme has been established primarily to provide counselling services as well as to meet the other needs of job seekers.

The establishment of CESS complements the ministry’s strategic plan in realising the Decent Work Agenda, which accords persistent focus on employment and employability for Malaysians.

Counselling officers have been deployed to 80 Labour Department offices and 26 ministry training institutes throughout the nation.

In addition to that, as of July 7, 2009, a total of 11 job placement programmes at state level and 78 mini job fairs at district level had been organised in the country.

These programmes are aimed at bringing the employment services closer to job-seekers in order to facilitate placement directly to suitable places of employment.

In line with the Government’s aspiration of branding JobsMalaysia as a major employment hub which caters for both the private and public sectors, it serves as a platform for all employers to inform the public of job vacancies and recruit those who meet their requirements.

As at July 7, 2009, out of 30,513 retrenched local workers, 11,325 workers have been re-employed through various mechanisms provided by the ministry.

Job-seekers, you are urged to register with JobsMalaysia to be selected for the training and job-matching services.

Despite the softening of the Malaysian economy, jobs are still aplenty in certain economic sectors.

Malaysian job seekers, especially those retrenched, should be willing to have a positive outlook about acquiring new skills through various courses under the Train and Place Programme being implemented by the ministry through 162 training providers currently approved.

Such training would provide them the opportunity to secure new skill sets, thus widening their prospect for better employment and employability.

However, to date, only 9,098 have signed up in the past two months for the programmes.

The slow response to the Train and Place programmes is indeed puzzling as there appears to be no reasonable justification to explain why Malaysian job-seekers, who are either unemployed or retrenched, do not take up the challenge to go for training and accept alternative employment, especially when training facilities are available at their doorstep and job opportunities, maybe only a hop, step and a jump away.

Have we as a nation grown so complacent?