Minister: Govt going all out in preparing future workforce
KUCHING: The federal government is taking various measures to prepare the workforce for the future, says federal Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir.
He points out that the industry’s needs have shifted tremendously from being labourintensive to getting equipped with advanced technologies, particularly with the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).
“With the rapid advancement of technologies that are constantly evolving, emerging job opportunities will also follow suit and change from what they were before,” he told reporters when met during a visit to Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) campus at Kota Samarahan near here yesterday, where he officiated at the ‘Semarak Kampus Madani’ programme.
Earlier, the federal minister conducted a visit to i-CATS University College.
Adding on, Zambry said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was ‘critically aware’ that the country’s workforce must keep up with the changing times, and that a whole-government approach was required to ensure that future jobseekers would be well-trained in the skills sets needed to work in the new industries.
In order to promote the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programmes, he said the government had also decided to form a committee comprising officials from various ministries and government agencies, towards driving the uptake of the education among the young population.
The federal minister also hoped that the research and development works conducted by higher learning institutions or universities could be converted into meaningful solutions to assist the local community and government, and not merely to serve as references for academic purposes.
On a separate matter, Zambry announced the approval of an additional allocation of RM4.8 million for various upgrading works to be carried out on the Unimas campus.
Meanwhile in a statement by the ministry, it said the ‘Semarak Kampus Madani’ programme was an initiative to explore various institutions of higher education, including public and private universities, polytechnics and community colleges across 16 zones nationwide, with Sarawak kicking off the first leg.
“This programme stemmed from the idea of the minister (Zambry), as announced during the ‘Ministry of Higher Education’s 2024 Direction Setting Ceremony’ at Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 12.
“Based on a ‘field visit’ concept, the minister, deputy minister along with the the top management of the ministry, will assess the actual situation at the institutional level, listen to concerns about policy implementation at the grassroots level, and prioritise the welfare of students and staff,” it said.