KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 — The Communications and Multimedia Ministry (KKMM) is always committed to addressing the problems faced by the media industry as many media organisations have been forced to downsize their operations following the spread of Covid-19.
Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said the situation had also forced many media practitioners to accept the fact of being laid off.
As the ministry that oversees the media industry, Saifuddin today shared KKMM’s initiatives made available through the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to help the people, especially those laid-off workers, to develop new skills, hence able to find a job and earn income online.
Among the initiatives by MDEC are the Global Online Workforce (GLOW) — Penjana which is a special programme that to help workers and individuals whose income was badly affected by the pandemic.
“GLOW — Penjana provides focused and specific guides to ensure a higher success rate of programme implementation. The programme also focuses on exporting the expertise of local freelancers and aims at securing assignments or full-time jobs in the global market,” he said in a statement here today.
Saifuddin said among the sectors to be focused on is the service sector where participants can be assigned as virtual assistants, online research officers, translators, as well as graphic designers and programmers.
He said based on MDEC statistics as of last year, 29,225 participants had been trained and managed to generate income totalling over RM168 million.
As such, he said he really welcomed those laid-off workers from the media industry to register for participation in the programme.
The minister said MDEC is also collaborating with the Social Security Organisation (Socso) to identify suitable digital technology courses that will be part of the Penjana 2020 recruitment and training incentives.
“Under this initiative, those qualified for PenjanaGig social protection will be required to work with gig economy companies registered with MDEC. Interested job seekers can check out the portal http://www.myfuturejobs.gov.my,” he said.
Besides, he said MDEC together with the global online learning platform, Coursera, had also launched the Jom Belajar Digital programme under the #MyDigitalWorkforce initiative, which offers 3,800 courses, including Professional Training Certificate.
The application is open until December 31, he said.
“Among the courses available are Google IT Automation with Python, Intel programming and introduction to internal learning, as well as career paths that participants can participate in such as data analysis and software development,” he said, adding that registration can be done at www.mdec.my/letslearndigital.
Saifuddin also shared about the 42 KL Programme, which is a tuition-free computer programming school offering a peer-to-peer learning concept that doesn’t involve teachers and lectures.
He said 20 countries had implemented the programme thus far and, in Malaysia, the first school will be opened in Sunday City.
The minister said that the #MyDigitalWorkforce Week will take place from Aug 24 to 28 involving three components namely webinars, digital career expo, and only training by partners, which will surely benefit the job seekers.
Next month, he said MDEC will also launch a Digital Skills Training Directory to help Malaysians choose training programmes that suit their needs and interests, and learn digital technology skills related to the industry, he said.
Saifuddin said MDEC also focuses on the development of talents in artificial intelligence (AI) technology by working closely with industry partners.
“Based on all these initiatives, I do hope that those affected by the current situation will use the information that I shared and help alleviate the burden of media operations downsizing due to Covid-19,” he added. — Bernama
