KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — Despite the high number of graduates with a first-class degree, youth unemployment remains high because of the lack of digital skills, Education Minister Maszlee Malik said.
Hence, the Education Ministry (KPM) welcomes public-private sector cooperation in helping graduates stay relevant in the job market by equipping them with the right skills.
“Malaysia produces a large number of educated youths, but according to Khazanah Research, youth unemployment has increased steadily from 9.94 per cent in 2011 to 10.92 per cent in 2018,” he said when launching the KPM-Celcom Siswapreneur@Google Bootcamp 2019 here today.
Maszlee believes that by equipping graduates with the right digital skills through public-private cooperation, this skills and knowledge gap can be fixed to make youths more competitive.
“Specifically, the KPM-Celcom Siswapreneur programme is an example of a Public-Private Partnership to develop digital entrepreneurs among the community of Higher Learning Institutions and equip graduates with digital marketing skills, in line with the country’s aspiration towards creating a robust digital economy,” he said.
Maszlee hoped that Celcom would be more than willing to expand its partnership with the ministry in the long term, supporting the mission to produce ethical, high quality and skilled graduates.
The two-day KPM-Celcom Siswapreneur@Google Bootcamp 2019 involves over 250 local undergraduates from 40 public and private universities, polytechnics and colleges nationwide.
The boot camp, being held for the second time, is the outcome of cooperation between the ministry and Celcom established in 2016.
The programme was initiated with the aim to develop students with entrepreneurship mindsets, skills and talents to produce more digital entrepreneurs.
At the programme, four local universities, namely Universiti Malaya, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and the National University of Defence signed a memorandum of understanding to join 17 other universities that are already on board the KPM-Celcom Siswapreneur. — Bernama
