Someone Forgot About The Blueprint For Skills Development in Malaysia

By admin-s On Jun 25, 2014

(The Establishment Post) – Malaysia wants to become a developed country by 2020 and about four years ago Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak unveiled the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) to achieve this goal.

The target is to, by 2020, have gross national income (GNI) per capita of US$15,000. This will be achieved by attracting US$444 billion in investments, which will, in turn, create 3.3 million new jobs. The emphasis will be on skills development and the proportion of skilled people in the workforce will rise from the present 24 per cent of the total workforce to 55 per cent in 2020.

But there is one thing that the government forgot – the blueprint for national skills development in Malaysia. No one has sat down and thought out a plan to get us from 24 per cent to 55 per cent. So says human resources expert and academician Neela Mehan, who expressed his disappointment when speaking as a panelist at a recent forum in Kuala Lumpur.

“But where’s the blueprint? No white paper, no research (in-depth study on the way forward).” asked Neela Mehan, a senior lecturer in a local public university. He was speaking at the Third International Skills Conference 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, organised by National Association of Private Educational Institutions (Napei) in partnership with the state government of Victoria, Australia.