By Fuad Nizam
KUALA LUMPUR: The Social Security Organisation (Socso) and the Education Ministry, through PINTAR Foundation, have launched the national level Career Exploration Programme.
The programme aims to expose upper secondary school students to the working industry and improve the current job market condition in the country.
Launched at SMK Batu Laut, here, by Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar, it also aims to expose students to the current situation in the supply and demand aspects of the job market, as well as impress on them the need to chart a career path and the importance of working on certain skills in order to increase individual competitiveness.
“The Career Exploration Programme is one of Perkeso’s initiatives to approach and expose upper secondary school students.
“The programme helps the students to become a more competent person in line with the needs of the work industry, have an innovative spirit and be more competitive.
“These are very important characteristics to enter the world of work because those with such skills and knowledge will be able to meet the needs of the job market,” said Sivakumar.
He said the programme would be built through a psychometric exam approach that focuses on human development where it aims to raise the awareness of self-potential among school students to apply the skills and knowledge which will then be used as a guide in the selection of educational institutions and careers in the future.
Sivakumar added that the programme, held with strategic collaboration between Socso and Pintar Foundation and supported by the Education Ministry, saw the involvement of as many as 11 schools around Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Pahang with the number of student participation exceeding 1,000 people.
“These schools are carefully identified and selected to benefit from this programme. The content of this programme is specifically designed to give exposure to students from high-needs schools about their career possibilities with the skills possessed through psychometric assessment.”
Sivakumar added that the continuous effort done by Socso through this programme would be able to empower the labour market for the younger generation as the current statistics by MyFutureJobs as of July 14 has painted a worrying picture of the mismatch of graduates in semi-skilled and low-skilled jobs.
“Looking at the statistics by MyFutureJobs job placements, there is a 42 per cent mismatch or 15,460 graduates in semi-skilled and low-skilled jobs and those with their pay of RM2,000 and this is a worrying picture of the issue of career mismatch among graduates.”
Sivakumar added that the programme would also help to realise the target of reducing the unemployment rate highlighted as the second strategy in the Human Resources Ministry Strategic Plan 2020-2025.
He also called on the support and collaboration of the Education Ministry to further enhance the involvement of such programmes.
“I believe, if this Career Exploration Programme is implemented more widely, it will be able to become a leader in producing a quality workforce and making the labour market more efficient,” he said.
Source: New Straits Times
