97,000 Grads Benefit From SL1M
TUARAN: More than 97,000 graduates have benefited from the 1Malaysia Training Scheme (SL1M) since its initiation in 2011 until September this year, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan.He said SL1M is one of the Government's efforts to enhance the job marketability of graduates through on-job training, including polishing their communication skills.
"A good employee is an individual who is able to blend the education and training obtained in higher learning institutes with the knowledge and skills attained outside of a learner's usual learning environment.
"What we want to stress is while we put priority on education grades, other factors, like personality, characteristic, communication and the ability to adapt well to the working world, will enable an individual to be more accepted by employers.
"Renowned universities like Harvard and Cambridge even made it a requirement for co-curriculum marks to be part of the marks to enrol into these universities… these marks include oratory, writing, sports, arts and entrepreneurship skills," he said at the opening of the Sabah SL1M Career Festival 2016 at the State Rela Training Centre, here, Saturday.
His speech was read by Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri SK Devamany.
He also said the unemployment rate stood at 3.5 per cent from a labour force of 14,762,200 in the country until September this year, based on statistics by the Statistics Department.
"Even though this figure is deemed low, the Government has never underestimated the issue which has become the concern of many, especially graduates.
"The Government had made various interventions to ensure more graduates will be employed. One of them is by introducing the SL1M and the Graduate Employability Management Scheme (GEMS) to increase graduates' marketability.
"Both schemes had benefitted more than 10,000 graduates in 2015 and the number has increased to 15,000 in 2016.
"The Government had also expanded the utilisation of the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) to conduct refresher and skills enhancement programmes, especially those who were laid off by their previous employers."
Abdul Rahman further said the Government had also implemented various mega projects which will provide many job opportunities for Malaysians such as the construction of the Pan Borneo Highway.
He also reminded job seekers to improve their communication skills, especially in English, as such skills are highly sought after in today's job market.
"Do not be afraid to make mistakes as eventually you are the ones who will benefit from it.
"I also hope that you will not be complacent with your existing abilities and will constantly expose yourselves to the outside world – be highly adaptable with the progress of time," he said.
About 6,000 visitors attended the one-day programme and about 1,000 employment and training opportunities were offered by 13 companies. Among them were Astro Sabah, Borneo Highway PDP Sdn Bhd, CIDB Malaysia, Excellence Skills Academy, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd, MASwings Sdn Bhd, Maybank, Sime Darby Plantation and UEM Group.
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