Roland (seated centre) with guests and participants of iCPD – Series 1 today.
MIRI (May 3): Sarawak Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn is calling on higher education institutions to work closely with industry players to promote job-skill alignment.
“As Sarawak is focused on enhancing economic performance and aspires to become a high-value knowledge economy built on a skilled and high-performing workforce, higher education institutions will need to work more closely with industries to promote job-skill alignment, combining labour market data with industry input to define the skills likely to be needed for tomorrow’s job.
“Upskilling, reskilling or multi-skilling of our local talents is one of the platforms to reduce our dependency on hiring expatriates,” he said.
Roland said this in his officiating address at the launching ceremony of Industry Continuous Professional Development Programme (iCPD) – Series 1 at Meritz Hotel here today.
Elaborating, he said research shows that employer investments in upgrading the skills of their employees deliver strong returns.
“In addition to that, in order to make the most impactful investments, education ecosystem stakeholders need to better understand what skills are readily available within the adult population and where the greatest skill gaps exist.
“This needs to be complemented with information about which skills are in greatest demand in the labour market and how to provide the appropriate reskilling pathways toward new employment opportunities,” he said.
He added that the Ministry of Education, Innovation and Talent Development’s (MEITD) vision is for Sarawak to have a competitive talent to drive the state’s aspirations, with a mission of advancing talent competitiveness and innovation in Sarawak.
“But, how to drive this state’s aspirations to achieve or to meet the demand of our new economy? The answer is to start with quality education. Quality education means that our children must complete their education journey starting from primary education to secondary and finally, tertiary education.
“Attaining tertiary education should be a priority among our youth. It is through higher education that we can have access to better employment and thus improve the livelihood of our family,” he said.
Touching on the iCPD programme, Roland applauded it for its objective to improve local workers’ competitiveness and employability whilst meeting the industry skills-set demand.
“I hope that this session will enable our local companies to help their existing workforce in developing their career pathways,” he said further.
Meanwhile, about 120 people from 60 companies here attended the iCPD with the main objective of assisting Sarawakians in finding relevant training courses to enhance their skills and knowledge while improving their marketability.
The programme was organised by MEITD in collaboration with the Ministry of International Trade, Industry and Investment Sarawak (Mintred); Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC); and Regional Corridor Development Authority (Recoda).
Also present at the launching ceremony were Deputy Minister for MEITD Datuk Francis Harden Hollis; MEITD deputy permanent secretary Anielia Siam; Recoda Corporate Services Division director Dr Hardysyam Junaidi; MPC director Mohamad Muzaffar Abdul Hamid; Sarawak Skills executive director Hallman Sabri; Department of Skills Development Sarawak Region director Donny Sadin Kachon.