The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers expects the Human Resource Development Corporation’s decision to enhance its Allowable Cost Matrix (ACM) to cause a significant boost in competitiveness and production of Malaysian industries.
The federation’s chairman Tan Sri Soh Thian Lai believes that simplifying access to continuous skills development programmes will help manufacturing companies keep their workforce agile and adaptable to industry changes, which could lead to higher efficiency, better product quality and increased global competitiveness.
It was reported that HRD Corp will also raise the ceiling for course fees to up to RM1,500 per hour or RM10,500 per day from the previous RM6,000 per day.
These changes will enable employers to take advantage of shorter, more specialised and high-end training programmes to upskill their employees, which aligns with the evolving workforce needs for continuous skills development and digital transformation.
Meanwhile, Human Resources Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong recently announced that companies can now claim training course fees based on hourly rates, replacing the previous half-day or full-day structures, allowing employers to benefit from shorter training programmes.
The announcement is made against the declining unemployment rate in the country that dropped by 0.1 percentage points to 3.2% in August after 9 months of standing at 3.3%, registering 558,500 unemployed people, as reported by the Labour Force Statistics.
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said that Malaysia’s labour market in August continued to expand, driven by encouraging economic growth with a continuous increase in the number of those who are employed, while the number of unemployed people continues to also decline.
“In this regard, the number of the labour force in August 2024 strengthened further, with a month-on-month increase of 0.1% to record 17.22 million people (July 2024: 17.20 million people).
“The number of employed people portrayed a growth of 0.2% to 16.66 million people in August 2024, up from 16.63 million in July,” Uzir explained.
At the same time, the number of unemployed people reduced to 558,500 with a decline of 0.9% (July 2024: 563,700 people).
Uzir also mentioned that the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 10.4% with 303,000 unemployed youths (July 2024: 10.5%, 304,500 people).
Similarly, the unemployment rate for youths aged 15 to 30 also went down by 0.1 percentage points to 6.4%, translating to 428,500 unemployed youths as compared to the previous month (July 2024: 6.5%, 433,100 youths).
