Equipping Employees with New Skills

The Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) was set up in 1993 to facilitate workers with continuous retraining and skills upgrading in line with the nation?s move towards a knowledge-based economy.

The fund, which is being managed by the Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad (PSMB), operates on a levy system basis, where employers who have paid for the levy will qualify for the fund to subsidize the training costs of their employees. It has to date implemented many training schemes in a diverse range of fields.

According to Multimedia Technology Enhancement Operations Sdn Bhd?s chief operating officer Dr Zainal Ahmad said that the rate of levy utilization among the small and medium-sized industries (SMIs) is low, although the HRDF is beneficial to both employers and employees for the critical upgrading of knowledge to contribute productively to the particular organization.

Dr Zainal added that the fund is instead more utilized by established organizations as they have a clear and long-term plan for future development as well as an allocated budget for training. Due to the approach of SMIs more focused towards the productivity of employees, they hence find it difficult to spare employees to attend the training programmes due to the limited human resources that they have. Another reason cited for the under-utilization of the HRDF among SMIs is the negative mindset of employers who believe that their staff may look elsewhere for better jobs upon the completion of their training programmes. Besides this, another contributing factor to SMIs not taking advantage of the HRDF could be attributed to the fact that English is being used as the medium of instruction for the training programmes, which may prove to be a hindrance for the SMIs in which 70% of them hail from the Chinese community.

To address the aforementioned issues of concern and subsequently change the mindset of SMIs towards a training culture, it is in this context that PSMB can play a greater role to encourage higher utilization of the fund among these industries. One of the methods, which Dr Zainal suggested, is the use of a benchmark for the training programmes to ensure that the quality upheld is as good as those in other countries.

In addition, programmes should also be sensitive to the local working culture and be integrated across industries to facilitate the exchange of knowledge. With respect to the language factor, PSMB has also launched three new English programmes recently to promote better use of English among staff of companies registered with it. Apart from these efforts and initiatives, plans are currently underway to develop a training portal by year end to further increase the levy utilization rate that stands at the present statistical figure of 60%. This portal would enable employers to access information on training centres and information content while at the same time, cater to online applications for training.

Meanwhile, PSMB?s general manager Shahril Hassan said that PSMB will continue carrying out the publicity campaign via printed and electronic medium. Apart from organizing the annual Human Resources Development Conferences, PSMB is also planning to publish a quarterly newsletter to be circulated to all registered employers and training providers to enable them to receive the latest updates on PSMB?s training schemes.

The ?Computimes? column in the New Straits Times newspapers, 25th February 2004

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