KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is in need of an updated talent strategy to continue to attract, retain and nurture the right talent.
In order to achieve this, Talent Corporation Malaysia Bhd (TalentCorp) is developing a framework to ensure talent in the country is ready for the Future of Work.
TalentCorp chief executive officer Shareen Shariza Abdul Ghani said under the Critical Occupations List (COL), skills mismatch can be monitored and also, occupations that are in demand and hard-to-fill in key economic sectors can be identified.
Quoting the 2016 Labour Force Survey Report published by the Department of Statistics, she said the working age population stood at 14.7 million, out of which 14.2 million were employed.
"We can see that there is a positive trend between the working age population and the number of employed persons, annually, as the growth is in tandem every year.
"We also foresee a positive future as Malaysia is growing and future economic activities will also help to create more jobs," she said during a presentation entitled 'Is Malaysia Prepared for the Future of Work and its Demanding Reality', organised by TalentCorp here today.
The presentation looked into the future of work and what it meant for employers, talents and the country at large.
Commenting on the unemployment among graduates, Shareen said there was a need to address the mismatch between the increase in tertiary-educated labour force and slow growth in high-skill employment, saying that graduates in the labour force outnumbered high-skill jobs in the economy.
"We need to minimise the skills mismatch between that of fresh graduates and the industry's requirements," she said.
She said a proper talent strategy was needed to attract, retain and nurture talent in preparing for the future, as well as to identify the market's requirement. -- BERNAMA