PETALING JAYA, Jan 24 — Talent Corporation Malaysia’s (TalentCorp) is now part of the Human Resources Ministry.
Its minister M. Kulasegaran said the move to place TalentCorp under his ministry was to enable more focus to be placed on serving Malaysian professional and graduate talents.
Prior to this TalentCorp was under the Prime Minister’s Department.
He added that there was an urgent need for Malaysia’s workforce to catch up with the times and equip themselves with the right tools for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).
“Malaysia is now facing numerous challenges. This includes ensuring that we meet the demand for an increased supply of skilled, future-ready talent that will be ready for the 4IR,” he said in a press release by TalentCorp.
“However, Malaysia’s 2017 Department of Statistics data shows that only 28 per cent of Malaysia’s workforce is high-skilled. This means that there’s an urgency to move quickly to create a pool of highly skilled professionals and graduates in Malaysia.”
He made the announcement during a visit to TalentCorp yesterday.
TalentCorp was initially founded under the Prime Minister’s Department in response to the 10th Malaysia Plan, a blueprint outlining strategies to achieve a higher income country status by the year 2020.
Under the Human Resources Ministry, TalentCorp will continue to pour efforts into attracting and optimising Malaysian talent with initiatives such as working with employers to implement work-life practices and recruiting and retaining women on career breaks through the Career Comeback Programme.
A one-year tax exemption for women returning from career breaks is also in its final stages of gazetting at the Finance Ministry.
The agency also aims to bring back Malaysians working abroad under the returning expert programme and giving students real-life industry exposure in their respective fields through the structured internship programme.
While Malaysian talents would be at the centre of TalentCorp’s focus, he also highlighted the importance of welcoming top expatriates to work in the country.
By doing so, he said that it would help accelerate the country’s progress and maintain Malaysia’s relevance in the international economy.
