KUCHING: The people in Sabah and Sarawak, particularly the bottom 40 (B40) group lack opportunities in the workforce, resulting in higher cases of unemployment.
Newly-appointed National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (Niosh) Chairperson Alice Lau said training programmes in both these states were very expensive as trainers were flown all the way from the Peninsular and the logistics incurred was high.
One way to reduce the training costs is by creating a bigger pool of trainers here in Sabah and Sarawak itself.
“As of 2019, the total percentage of trainers available in Sabah was 10 per cent and 14 per cent in Sarawak," Lau said, adding that the target was to increase this to 30 per cent for both states next year.
"As such, I am confident the people will be able to secure better job opportunities with higher salaries. I will focus to train more people and get them prepared for employment,” she said.
Occupational safety and health, according to Lau, was an interesting and fresh field, almost untapped by women.
“It is a male dominant field but I will also work with Niosh to be the ambassador to attract more women into this.
“I was told that as of 2019, the total number of female participants in Niosh trainings was 10, 577 which is about 8.9 per cent only. I would like to champion this to 15 per cent by next year,” Lau said in her inaugural speech as the Chairperson of Niosh at the 6th Borneo Conference & Exhibition on Occupational Safety and Health, here, yesterday.
Lau who is also Lanang MP, revealed her vision of bringing in more competent people into the workforce.
“We need to close the skills gap among the rakyat.
“We have to be able to develop competent talents to fill in the demanding workforce and adapt to the ever-changing economic realities. It is our responsibility to develop highly skilled talents,” she said.
Lau informed that she would negotiate with the government for a higher allocation to support efforts by Niosh to improve the OSH practices in the country.
“We will explore more unutilised training funds such as the Skills Development Fund (PTPK) and the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) so that more competent workers can be trained into trainers, thus reducing the cost of training for Niosh. I will lead a discussion with the Human Resources Ministry to see how we can use these funds to train more competent workforce in the market,” she said.
Lau also suggested the government to provide more incentives for employers to invest in OSH as well as the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the benefit of the workforce.
“I will personally discuss with the Minister of Finance, Lim Guan Eng for the government to introduce tax incentives for every PPE purchased by employers,” she said.