Technology multinational corporations (MNCs) that have pledged investments in Malaysia, such as Nvidia Corp, Infineon Technologies, and Google, have raised concerns about the shortage of skilled labour in the country, according to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The concerns were raised during his engagements with executives from the three MNCs, Anwar said.
The PM said the tech industry is increasingly relying on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) graduates for their skills to support operations requiring automation and technological transformation.
“Talking to Nvidia, Infineon, Google, and tonight Amazon, most of them expressed their concern that while they are proud of the fact that we have a disciplined, qualified workforce, we lack that niche at the highest level. And to achieve that highest level, the young must be allowed to be trained now,” Anwar said in his keynote address at Invest Malaysia 2024 here.
To address this issue, Anwar called on the private sector to collaborate with government institutions on talent development, as he said these talents could not be produced under normal syllabus or school systems.
“We cannot go on with the previous syllabus of TVET training. The best is for the private sector to be involved. The involvement of the private sector in education, in TVET, in technical training, [and] in AI (artificial intelligence), would be far more efficient than having to run as a normal educational programme,” he said.
Citing inspirations from the establishment of Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in Abu Dhabi, Anwar pointed to the recent launch of Malaysia’s first faculty of AI under Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in May.
He said the faculty was set up within four months of its ideation.
“Of course, that is an initial programme. So, we need banks, we need Khazanah [Nasional Bhd], we need established conglomerates, Bursa Malaysia, to be able to collaborate with them, having that synergy to be able to assist so that we [can] produce qualified, competent graduates in new fields,” Anwar added. – The Edge Malaysia
