Retirement age extension won’t affect work, promotion prospects, says Karim

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KUCHING: Assistant Minister of Youth Development Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the extension of compulsory retirement age from 58 to 60 years as announced in Budget 2012 will not affect the chances of youths to work or move up the civil service ladder.

In an SMS to The Borneo Post yesterday, Karim said opportunities were still wide open and available at all times, depending on the demand.

“As it is now, job aspirants and varsity graduates do not list civil service as their top priority in scouting for jobs. They rather look at other factors such as salary and perks,” he said.

In the case of those graduates and job seekers who were interested to join the civil service, they could always apply without having to worry about not securing the job.

“There are still vacancies and the opportunities are still open,” Karim assured.

Karim, who is also Asajaya assemblyman, said in a way the extension of retirement age was good for the country.

“It is good for the country as we won’t be wasting our experienced, skilled and matured employees by retiring them early,” he reasoned.

On the allocation of RM200 million for Strategic Action Youth (SAY 1Malaysia), Karim described the move as a wise one.

“Those youths, especially those who cannot get into higher institutions of learning or varsity, can go astray if they are not brought into the mainstream of development,” he said.

Now, they (youths) could be trained to become semi-skilled workers, he added.