SCORE needs more skilled workforce — Riot

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MIRI: Sarawak needs more skilled workforce to power the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), says Minister of Human Resource Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem.

“SCORE, a new development corridor in the state is targeting to accelerate the state’s economic growth which could result in a positive improvement on the quality of life for the locals.

“One of the main components of the 10th Malaysia Plan is human resource development through skills trainings to enable the country to produce quality, highly skilled, knowledgeable and innovative human capital,” he said to hundreds of guests attending Shell OT and LoT graduation ceremony.

He lamented that statistics showed that skilled workers constituted only about 28 per cent or 3.8 million out of the 13.8 million workers in this country.

“Compared to skilled labour force in Singapore that stands at 51 per cent, Australia 43 per cent, United Kingdom 43 per cent and Hong Kong at 36, Malaysia is still behind other high income nations,” he said.

Riot, however, commended Shell’s efforts in developing local capabilities, particularly in Sarawak where it first began operating in the upstream oil and gas sector.

“Other corporations should make their move to invest in skills training and leadership development programmes for their workforce, in response to the country’s ever-changing manpower requirements and to complement national efforts,” he remarked in his speech ahead of the graduation dinner which saw 24 technicians graduating from Shell’s Operation Technician (OT) Training Programme.

The Operation Technician programme is developed on the bedrock concept of ‘Jack of all trades, master of one’, with 70 per cent hands-on training at worksites and 30 per cent classroom or e-learning and workshop activities.

The trainees who completed the programme are conferred with Advanced Diploma, which is externally accredited by the Business and Technical Education Council and Edexcel from United Kingdom.

The Leader of Teams (LoT) programme is an in-house programme to develop effective leaders equipped with the right knowledge, skills and behaviours.