State govt launches enhancement programme to address unemployment among diploma, degree holders
Adenan (centre) visiting the Petronas booth, accompanied by (from left) Abdullah and Len. — Photo by Kong Jun Liung
KUCHING: The state government has launched the Graduate Enhancement Training Sarawak (GETS) programme to address unemployment, especially among graduates.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem said the programme is part of the state government’s initiative to train unemployed diploma and degree holders to enhance their employability.
“GETS is an employability enhancement programme offered by the state government working with partners from the industry,” he said when officiating at the Sarawak Career and Training Fair (SCaT) 2016 at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) here yesterday.
He said the new programme would not only assist unemployed graduates but also provide support for participating companies.
“Unemployed graduates will be attached as GETS interns with a GETS-partner company for a period of 12 months.
“The company will assign a dedicated mentor and assign appropriate tasks and responsibilities to help interns acquire critical industry related skills which will enhance their employability,” he said, adding during the 12-month internship, the GETS interns will also be provided with courses in English, soft skills and self-marketing skills.
During the training, interns will be paid training allowance of RM1,000 (degree holders) or RM800 (diploma holders).
Adenan also pointed out that GETS has two major objectives with the first objective being an employability enhancement programme which will enable the graduates to acquire valuable work experience in commercial or industrial companies, in which interns will also attend specially structured courses.
“The second objective of GETS is to help companies to weather the current challenging economic conditions. By becoming a GETS partner, they can maintain their current business or even expand it with the help of the GETS interns.”
He added that this was based on the success of the Capacity Building For Graduates (CBG) programme that was implemented in 2009 which provided valuable work experience to 4,863 participants.
In view of this, he urged all unemployed graduates from Sarawak to contact the Chief Minister’s Department Workforce Development Unit to register as a GETS intern.
Meanwhile, Adenan also pointed out that Sarawak was besieged by two critical constraints as it strove to increase the capacity and the range of technical and skills training programmes offered in the state.
“The first is funding,many of our youths that have secured places in TVET institutions had to decline the offer as they could not get loan from Perbadanan Tabung Pembangunan Kemahiran (PTBK).”
According to him, the allocation for PTBK had decreased in 2015 which also affected loans for the applicants.
“Sarawak youths, especially those from rural areas, depend very much on the availability of financial support, without which they cannot continue their training. I hope that the Ministry of Human Resources, the Ministry of Finance and PTBK will review this and increase the allocation for Sarawak.”
Adenan assured that Yayasan Sarawak, of which he is the chairman, was prepared to assist those having difficulty in finding funding.
On the second constraint, he said the state lacked qualified local instructors in skills training.
“I hope the Ministry of Human Resources will view this problem seriously and set up a Centre for Instructor and Advanced Skill Training (CIAST) or a similar institution in Sarawak so that more locals can attain the Vocational Training Officer Certificate and the Advanced Diploma for Vocational Trainers.”
“We do not want our youths to waste three to four years of the best part of their life and a substantial amount of money to get a degree or acquire a skill which they discover later that there is little or no demand for it.”
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu, State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani, Land Development Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing, Assistant Minister of Industrial Estate Development Datuk Peter Nansian, Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office (Promotion of Technical Education) Datu Len Talif Salleh and chief political secretary to the chief minister Abdullah Saidol were present.