More than 11,000 local workers have been hired through the government’s Hiring Incentive Programme (PenjanaKerjaya) so far, according to Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan.
He added from June 15 to Aug 7, 8,170 employers had registered for the incentive, with 3,777 of them taking in 11,368 workers.
“In the construction sector, 560 employers have registered for the programme with 1,181 applicants getting jobs,” he said during the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Social Security Organisation (Socso) and the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) yesterday.
Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof Yusof was also present at the event.
The government introduced PenjanaKerjaya worth RM1.5bil under the National Economic Revival Plan (Penjana) to encourage the hiring of the unemployed local workers.
The Human Resources Ministry is responsible for implementing the programme through Socso’s National Employment Services.
The signing of MOU was to increase training and job placements in the construction sector with Socso would bear the cost of upskilling and reskilling local workers.
The programme is open to all Socso contributors and those who have been taken in for employment since June 5.
CIDB through the Akademi Binaan Malaysia and CIDB Technologies will provide training in various categories such as building, crane operations, electrical and welding.
CIDB will also offer training in management, industrialised building system and in the use of building information modelling.
Local workers who undergo the training will receive an allowance of RM30 a day.
Fadillah said that there were 6,564 vacancies in the construction sector of the 126,969 active vacancies on the MyFutureJobs portal.
He added that of the 6,564 vacancies, 3045 or 46.4% were in management, professional, executive and technical categories.
InterManpower added Penjana initiative will allow more employer to recruit more local workers as it helps to reduce their hiring cost.
Local workers will also benefit from this initiative as incentive will be paid to them through their employer.
More local workers are urged to accept jobs that are available during this challenging period even though the pay is not high.
Adapted from The Star, 12 Aug 2020.