Source: http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/Seventy-sevenpercentnation_sworkforceonlyattainSPM/Article/
Seventy-seven per cent nation's workforce only attain SPM
2010/05/22
NUSAJAYA: Seventy-seven per cent of the country's workforce had only attained the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia or equivalent academic qualification.
This does not go well with Malaysia's aspiration to achieve the developed nation status by 2020, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
"If we do not seriously address the education gap, Malaysia will not have the labour pool that is sufficiently educated and prepared to work in high end industries that our country is developing," he said.
Najib said this when launching Khazanah Nasional's MYWorkLife Talent Portal at Puteri Habour, here today.
He said that Western Digital Malaysia had announced an investment of USD1.2 billion in this country that would involve the construction of a new 1.5 million sq ft multi-storey building for research, development and manufacture of magnetic head, media components and hard disk drives.
Up to 10,000 additional jobs, involving a substantial number of high-qualification jobs, 100 PhD holders, 1,000 masters or equivalent holders will be created at the facility over time.
"What does that say about us? It means that we have not developed enough people both in qualitative and quantitative terms to fulfil the requirement of knowledge and innovative economy," he said.
The Prime Minister said, as outlined in the New Economic Model, several key factors were essential to prepare the workforce to meet tomorrow’s challenges.
"We need to increase our local talent over time, re-skill our existing labour force and retain and access local and global talent so that we will be able to change our per capita income from the present level of US$7,000 (RM23,345) to US$15,000 (RM50,000) by 2010," he said.
The possible areas that the government is considering to review in order to attract highly experienced Malaysians and foreign workers to call Malaysia home include:
- Relaxing rules regarding permanent residence status for ex-Malaysians and their families as well as for foreigners.
- Centralizing oversight of foreign labour and expatriates to enable more streamlined governance of residence policies.
- Building up a critical mass of skilled professionals through simplified work permit and immigration procedures.
- And continuing to liberalise the professional services sector.
Also present were Menteri Besar Johor Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman and Managing Director of Khazanah Nasional Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar. -- Bernama
