KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) expects to create more than 7,000 job opportunities through its ‘Mida Open Day’ today.
Mida director of industry talent management & expatriate division, Mohamad Ismail Abu Bakar, said Mida received about 56 companies’ participation to exhibit at the job fair, which in turn would provide vacancies in various levels of positions.
“The responses from companies are very encouraging. We have government-linked companies (GLCs), multinational and local companies as well,” he said in an interview today.
Mohamad Ismail said Mida had secured pre-registration of more than 6,000 visitors, and expected between 2,000 and 3,000 more visitors to register.
“For today’s event, we are looking at 9,000 to 10,000 people. The event is a very good platform for job seekers and companies to find candidates that suit their job requirements,” he added.
Exhibitors for the event include Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Permodalan Nasional Bhd, UMW Corp Sdn Bhd, Yakult (M) Sdn Bhd, Petronas Chemical Group Bhd, Top Glove Sdn Bhd, DRB-HICOM Bhd, Lazada Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Nestle Manufacturing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.
Mohamad Ismail said the offerings ranged from managerial level jobs, such as senior manager posts, to executive and supporting staff.
“Seventy seven per cent of the openings are for the managerial, professional and technical positions as well as technicians and associate professional categories,” he said.
Mohamad Ismail said the remaining openings were in the semi- to low-skilled levels, such as craft related works, customer services as well as sales works.
“Majority of the job seekers are fresh graduates (80 per cent) and experienced candidates (20 per cent). Companies are also looking for experienced candidates,” he said, adding that the Mida Open Day was a good avenue for those looking for better employment.
On another note, Mohamad Ismail said companies complained of not being able to find competent candidates, citing a mismatch between supply and demand.
Mohamad Ismail said Mida would play its role to bridge the gap through the industry skill council with the objective of promoting continuous employability among locals.
“At job fairs like this, most companies usually don’t hire on the spot, but some do give conditional letter of offers.
“Mida has briefed the companies to at least issue conditional offer letters. After a month, we will follow up with them to get the actual successful hiring rates,” he said.
Mohamad Ismail said Mida was concerned about the rate of employment and would look at whether the job fair fulfils the companies’ employability requirements.
Mohamad Ismail added the government had programmes like the Skim Latihan 1 Malaysia (SL1M) to help unemployed graduates.
“Quite a number of GLCs, including Maybank, CIMB, Sime Darby and Malaysia Airlines, are offering this programme. The companies would train graduates for eight to 10 months on soft skills,” he said.
He said companies should provide longer-term industrial trainings to graduates to minimise the unemployment rate.