Academy of Sciences Malaysia fellow Madeline Berma said the pandemic had led to an increase in unemployment and under-employment, resulting in a skills gap that businesses were struggling to fill.

She said continuous skilling, upskilling and reskilling programmes were required.

“Malaysia needs structural reforms to take us from being an economy which uses cheap, unskilled foreign labour to one that is skilled and knowledge-based.

“The country needs a skilled labour force to stay competitive for its post-Covid-19 economic recovery,” she told FMT.

Madeline was commenting on the RM1.1 billion allocation under Budget 2022 for the upskilling and training of 220,000 people.

She said the government should also focus on providing skills training to those in the “Not in Education, Employment or Training” (NEET) category.

Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) president Syed Hussain Syed Husman said it was good that the government was placing emphasis on upskilling and reskilling to produce a more competent workforce.

Syed Hussain said new employment opportunities need to be created and existing jobs protected.

“Upskilling and reskilling efforts should be able to bring down the unemployment rate and deal with structural changes in the labour market,” he told FMT.

Syed Hussain said initiatives taken by the government must be able to tackle issues like underemployment, retrenchment and employment of fresh graduates.