KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 ― Human capital becomes the most critical factor of success, far exceeding the importance of natural resources and infrastructures which drove Malaysia in its yesteryears, says Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said Malaysia’s formula prepared nearly 30 years ago, comprising factors such as political stability, cheap labour, law and order as well as first class infrastructures had been successfully replicated and further improved by its neighboring competitor.

“Our only way forward is to have winning human capital, and that we need to completely re-imagine our education and training.

“Improving our schools alone is not enough, our journey towards excellence will require holistic human resource management that is up there with the best,” he said in his keynote address at the opening of the third Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Human Capital Summit here today.

The summit is titled ‘Winning in the Age of Disruption: Productivity and Adaptability’.

Also present were former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, wife, Tun Jeanne Abdullah, Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI) Chief Executive Officer Tan Sri Dr Michael Yeoh and High School Bukit Mertajam (HSBM) president Datuk S. Kulasegaran.

In building winning human capital, Khairy said it was crucial to embrace the fact that the world where the young generation would live in 2050, would be far different from today’s living.

“Four out of 10 jobs today, and these include white collar jobs are at risk of being automated. Retail, manufacturing, agriculture and construction are at the forefront of automation, leading to more machines and less unskilled workers,” he explained.

He said the average length of workers staying at one job today, was about 4.4 years while the figure was half of that count on young workers, adding that this trend would continue while gig economy encouraged more part-timers with less full-time workers.

“More young people globally are looking for jobs with positive impact to the community, and choosing a job is no longer about pay and monetary rewards,” he noted.

Taking schools in Malaysia for example, Khairy said a bold step was needed when answering the age-old conundrum involving the old manner of learning.

While ensuring the children had access to basic education, Malaysian schools must continuously change to ensure the kids left schools with the right skills, he stressed.

“If their (current) classrooms are the same as our classrooms back then, with exams (examinations) and subjects and memorisation and early start time with no phone or gadget, we are preparing them for our jobs today, which will not exist when they enter the real world,” he said.

Khairy said as more jobs are being digitalised, Malaysia should embrace technology to allow its human capital to be productive, adding that the people should also accept that traditional qualification was becoming more obsolete.

He said it was important for Malaysia to encourage and facilitate its human capital to become a high-income nation.

“Our drive to become a high-income nation with highly skilled local workers must be one that is pushed through by every stakeholder involved, be it the government, industry players or our human capital themselves.” ― Bernama