Free courses for all as NTW targets record numbers
NTW 2024 expands scope, boosts skills with RM200 million in courses
KUALA LUMPUR - The Human Resource Ministry is targeting 150,000 enrolments for National Training Week 2024 (NTW 2024) spearheaded by the Human Resource Development Corporation (HRD Corp) set to take place from June 24-30 this year.
Human Resource Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong said the optimistic goal was set due to the astounding impact of the one-week programme last year, which saw the enrolment of over 129,000 Malaysians in various training courses, recording over 500,000 cumulative training hours.
He said this year's event was different with participation open to civil servants as well as offering training related to artificial intelligence (AI) and the digital economy sector.
"HRDCorp, as we all know, receives a training levy from companies based on the number of employees and we have about 1.2 million SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in Malaysia but the SMEs that can pay the levy are only approximately 80,000.
"Therefore, we know that the market for this training is very wide, they do not pay the levy but for this NTW, HRDCorp will provide free training to all Malaysians regardless of the companies that pay or are unable to pay the levy, including individuals," he said.
Sim is also aiming for this year's event to be a 'launch pad' in boosting the credibility of training providers in the country to achieve international standards and quality.
"... we have an ecosystem, we have world-class industrial companies (MNCs) and the employees working for these MNCs here have world-class skills, so I think it is not impossible that our training centre in Malaysia can become a world-class training centre.
"Now we train Malaysians but our ambition is to make Malaysia a training hub where there may be trainees or students from abroad who can also come to Malaysia to receive training," he said.
NTW this year will offer as many as 25,000 training modules in various fields for free for every age group with the entire collection worth RM200 million fully funded by the training industry. - BERNAMA
