Baru (third left) shows the thumbs-up after the officiating at the ceremony. Ahmad Asri is at second right.
KUCHING: The government is aware of the huge outflow of funds through foreign workers, says Works Minister Baru Bian.
“The government is very aware that there are many foreign workers in Malaysia and we don’t want to be dependent on foreign workers. There is a huge amount of money flowing out of the country, so we want to contribute in training the younger generation into skilled workers.
“Also we are moving into Industrial Revolution 5.0 (IR 5.0), where everything will be digitalised, so we want to prepare the younger generation for the industrial sector,” the minister said in a press conference after officiating the opening ceremony of ‘Jelajah TVET’ (technical and vocational education and training) here yesterday.
Baru also wanted the younger generation to change their mentality about working in the industrial sector associated with the ‘Three Ds’ – ‘dirty, dangerous, and difficult’.
“Now there are skilled workers working in air-conditioned environment using computers and technology.
Times are changing, and the younger generation needs to be ready to take this opportunity. The salary is not bad too – some of these guys are earning even more than professional engineers. Scaffolders, chargemen or crane operators are in high demand in the oil and gas industry.”
An estimated RM5 million flows out of Malaysia annually to pay 420,000 foreign workers hired by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) in the construction industry.
On ‘Jelajah TVET’, Baru commended CIDB for holding the roadshow to promote programmes under the construction category.
“I welcome this initiative to go down to the ground and promote TVET to the youths, specifically those in the rural areas as well as those left out in academics. Furthermore, these are high-impact courses that are beneficial to them. Hopefully through this programme, more youths would be exposed to the importance of TVET in the nation’s workforce,” he said.
Meanwhile in his speech, CIDB chief executive Datuk Ahmad Asri Abdul Hamid said the board had allocated about RM700 million to prepare construction skills-training programmes run by Construction Academy of Malaysia (ABM).
“As many as 265,750 youths throughout the nation have benefitted from this allocation, and in Sarawak alone, CIDB has produced as many as 37,704 trainees in various construction trades. CIDB is committed to ensuring the training skills in the construction industry would be elevated from time to time, in line with the advancements of technology,” he pointed out.
There are six ABMs in Malaysia focusing on high-impact skills including scaffolding erection, welding, wiremanship, chargemanhsip, gas pipe fitting, blasting and painting, non-destructive testing, crane operation, plant operation, plumbing, air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation.
‘Jelajah TVET’, which kicked off here will head to Terengganu and Pahang.
Later at the event, Baru presented a memento to ABM student Ahmad Naim Mohamad Rosli, the Kuchingite who represented Malaysia in the World Skills Competition (WSC) Kazan 2019.
Works Ministry deputy secretary-general (management) Dato Dr Ong Gua Pak, CIDB Sarawak director Mohd Merzan Hashim and ABM Sarawak chief operations officer Abdul Rahman Ahmad were also present at the event yesterday.