Ministry of Human Resources launches internship placement matching grant for SMEs, start-ups
The Ministry of Human Resources (Kesuma) has launched the Internship Placement Matching Grant for Small and Medium Enterprises (LiKES) to encourage SMEs and start-ups to nurture local talent through meaningful, structured, and paid internship programmes for students.
Minister Steven Sim said LiKES is a new initiative under Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp) with a total matching grant of RM30 million provided by the government to benefit 30,000 trainees.
The LiKES initiative, he said, will be open to employers from today until 2026, and targets the participation of 600 SMEs and start-ups.
“For the first time, the government has introduced an internship placement matching grant to support the SME and start-up sector to ensure more employers participate in a
collective effort to nurture the country’s young talent.
“We are aware that many companies have constraints to pay allowances and internship opportunities are unevenly distributed, where they (companies providing industrial
training) are more concentrated in Penang, Johor and Kuala Lumpur,” he told reporters after launching LiKES here yesterday.
Sim said the LiKES matching grant covers a training period of up to six months and is open to applications by SMEs and start-ups in addition to the qualified applicant committing to offer a training placement of at least 10 weeks and provide a minimum industrial training allowance.
“The minimum allowance for Malaysian Skills Certificate, Diploma and Malaysian Skills Diploma students is RM500 per month, of which TalentCorp will reimburse the employer RM250 a month.
“For interns pursuing Malaysian Advanced Skills Diploma, Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s Degree or professional certificate, the minimum allowance to be paid is RM600 per month, and TalentCorp will reimburse RM300 per month,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said the ministry is expected to present the first National Human Resource Policy framework this May, with one of the components involving industrial training.