KUALA LUMPUR: About 150,000 participants are expected to join the 2024 National Training Week (NTW) organised by the Human Resources Development Corporation (HRD Corp).
Human Resource Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong said the programme, which involves 25,000 free courses this year, was funded by the industry players at a cost of RM200 million.
Sim said among the new improvements to the programme this year was the inclusion of participants from the civil service sector, as well as enhanced focuses towards the digital economy and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
"The target this year is driven by last year's achievement where we provide 21,000 free training courses to more than 129,000 Malaysians with 503,000 training hours.
"We know that the market for such training is extensive. This time around, the NTW will be provided by HRD Corp for free, regardless of whether the companies can pay the levy or whether they can afford (the fee) or not.
"The ministry through agencies like HRD Corp is committed to working with industry players in providing lifelong learning pathways in whatever skills Malaysians want to learn, be it in universities, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions or through certifications," Sim said during the pre-launch of 2024 NTW here today.
NTW is a full week of nationwide training events and activities bringing together organisations and people from various industries and backgrounds for learning and development opportunities.
The training, which is conducted though various learning methods and platforms, is provided by local industry players for free for all Malaysians in many locations.
Meanwhile, Sim said the programme this year is aimed at serving as a launch pad to boost credibility of the country's training provider sector to be raise their quality to be on par with international standards.
He said such a target was not impossible as Malaysia has a well-established ecosystem in many job sectors.
"We have an ecosystem, (and) we have our people with world-class skills working with multinational corporations (MNCs). Hence, I believe it is not impossible for our training centres to achieve world-class level.
"Therefore, we will continuously train Malaysians (in achieving world-class skills) and we aspire to make Malaysia a training hub where trainers or students from other countries can also come here for training," he said.