HRDF Placement Centre launched, with 19,000 job opportunities available to Malaysians

The portal, poised to provide 50,000 job and income opportunities for Malaysians, brings together employers, candidates, training providers and career coaches.

On 6 April 2021, Kuala Lumpur saw the launch of the HRDF Placement Centre (HPC) by the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF), with the aim of providing over 50,000 employment and income-generation opportunities for Malaysians this year.

The portal is expected to achieve the following:

• Match employers from a wide range of industries and sectors to the right candidates to fill immediate vacancies;
• Offer training and development opportunities to employees, to address the talent skills gap;
• Provide Malaysians with the opportunity to connect with coaches and trainers for career counselling and advice.

To date, more than 200 candidates have secured job placements at leading companies through the HPC. They were presented with their offer letters at the event by their respective employers.

The HPC was launched by Malaysia's Minister of Human Resources, Datuk Seri M. Saravanan together with the Minister of Finance, Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, and witnessed by Datuk Seri Jamil Salleh, Chairman of HRDF and Datuk Shahul Hameed, Chief Executive of HRDF.

Speaking at the event, Minister Saravanan said: "The HPC is a great initiative that complements the ministry’s existing efforts to address the unemployment challenges faced by the nation from COVID-19. Beyond immediate placements, Malaysians from a diverse range of backgrounds, skillsets and experiences will be able to get the support and guidance they need to jumpstart and build their career journeys."

Adding to the sentiment, Minister Zafrul said: "Malaysia is on the cusp of a post- pandemic economic revival, with a projected growth of 7 per cent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The employment, income generation and talent development opportunities provided by the HPC will be instrumental in helping the government achieve this aim."

Datuk Shahul added: "We are pleased to bring together our strategic partners, employers, training providers and career coaches onto one centralised portal to address the nation’s immediate and long term employment needs. We are on track to achieve our target of 50,000 this year. Currently, candidates can already access more than 19,000 jobs on HPC."

Five focus areas for Malaysia's economic recovery and resilience in 2021

In his speech, Minister Zafrul shared the Government's five focus areas for economic recovery and resiliency in 2021:

• Focus 1: Control COVID-19 to enable economic opening (herd immunity by Dec 2021)
• Focus 2: Driving economic revitalisation while continuing to support affected rakyat and sectors
• Focus 3: Strengthening competitiveness by strengthening the public service delivery system and improving workforce skills
• Focus 4: Ensuring inclusivity by reducing development gaps between states and inequalities in society
• Focus 5: Transform the economy into a knowledge -based and innovation -driven economy

Under focus area two, he cited one of the key priorities this year is to create and facilitate more jobs. To this end, he shared the following developments:

1. Established the NEC, which is chaired by the Prime Minister, to create 500,000 jobs this year. This was announced under the JanaKerja initiative in Budget 2021, for which the MOF has allocated RM3.7 billion.
2. So far, job creation efforts by both the NEC and MOHR have shown encouraging success rates. Placed more than 110,000 jobs by end of March, but also received positive feedback from employers on their needs and requirements.
3. Encouraging signs in the labour market which are expected to support the recovery in income levels and, in turn, private consumption. 10. For example, the FMM-MIER survey announced in early March indicated that there have been more jobs in the manufacturing sector recently. In terms of hiring, 15% of employers had increased their employee headcount by end-2020, compared to 6% in the first half of 2020.
4. Improved labour placement rate based on SOCSO’s Employment Insurance Scheme tracking. In March this year, for every 100 people who lost their jobs, 36 successfully found employment, compared to only nine throughout the second quarter of 2020. 
5. On the topic of job retention, more than 2.7mn jobs have been saved since the Wage Subsidy Programme was launched in April 2020, with a total allocation of RM14.4 billion. The programme has also benefited more than 320,000 employers.

He concluded: "Moving forward, we are committed to creating high skilled and high paying jobs through high value investments, both domestic and foreign. Greater adoption of technology and digitalisation, as well as planned investments to enhance high-speed Internet connectivity and build 5G infrastructure as indicated in the MyDigital blueprint, will definitely create job opportunities in the technology and IT services industry."

Photos / Provided by HRDF

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