To be held in conjunction with International Women’s Day, the one-day convention also aims to deliver a call to action for everyone to do more to achieve collective equality by investing in local women talents and accelerating their progress.
TalentCorp Group CEO Thomas Mathew said about 1,000 participants are expected to attend the event at the Connexion Conference & Event Centre at Nexus, Bangsar South, which will also be streamed live.
“This year’s event anticipates a diverse audience, including women in the workforce, career comeback women, and senior talents.
“The main objective of the convention is to provide career opportunities for women from all walks of life, especially to address the issue of unemployment and underemployment among women and seniors by increasing their access to the labour market,” he told FMT.
As an agency under the human resources ministry tasked with driving Malaysia’s talent strategy, TalentCorp is committed to continuously advocating for women in the workplace, he said.
“Studies have shown that diversity equates to better financial performance and talent retention. Promoting equitable practices and increasing women’s participation in the workforce is not only the right thing to do, but also a smart economic move.
“We’re committed to supporting women in entering the workforce, as we believe there is a wealth of outstanding female talent. Recently, we announced the Wanita MyWIRA initiative aimed at closing the gender gap in the workforce,” said Mathew.
The Wanita MyWIRA initiative was launched on March 5. It serves as a platform for empowering women by consolidating women empowerment programmes under TalentCorp’s oversight.
It will use the MyNext platform for assessments, creating a centralised database for the women’s workforce. Other efforts include establishing a critical occupations list and boosting industry-academia collaboration for women’s support.
Women as key assets in the workforce
Women, family and community development minister Nancy Shukri said women play an invaluable role as key assets in the workforce.
She said many women in Malaysia are highly qualified, talented, and have much to offer and contribute, with some holding very high positions.
“When we see the data, it shows that a lot of women are leaving the workforce, firstly because they want to take care of their family. They have children or elderly family members to care for.
“So they’re quitting their jobs. The government has now targeted 60% of women to get back to the labour market within 10 years,” she said.
In July, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim unveiled his vision for a new Madani economy, including a goal for women to comprise up to 60% of the workforce within the next decade – one of seven medium-term objectives.
According to the statistics department, Malaysian women’s participation in the labour force stood at 56.3% as of June last year compared to men, at 82.9%. Regionally, Malaysia had one of the lowest percentages of women in the workforce compared with countries like Cambodia (74%), Singapore (59.4%) and Thailand (59%).
Nancy said her ministry and other government agencies had a number of key initiatives being implemented to empower women in the workforce as well as other spheres of leadership.
This year’s International Women’s Day is themed “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”.
TalentCorp is also hosting a Women Empowerment Week from March 2 to 9 with a series of activities lined up, including the convention, first introduced in 2021.
Registration for the Women Career Convention, which will run from 9am to 5pm, is free and may be made here.