KUALA LUMPUR: Students who graduated from the year 2019 but have yet to land a job are encouraged to take full advantage of the government's Career Advancement Programme (CAP) known as Penjana KPT-CAP.
In making the call, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the RM100 million Penjana KPT-CAP programme would help graduates attune themselves to the new demands in the job market due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"I was told that starting today, graduates can send in their applications for relevant programmes under the Penjana KPT-CAP.
"Therefore, I would like to plead to all graduates of the years 2019 and 2020, who have yet to find a job to really take advantage of the programmes as they could help increase your employability.
"Unlike other up-skilling and re-skilling programmes, the Penjana KPT-CAP is unique because we will ensure every graduate gets a job as the courses are designed to cater to companies' demands," he said in his speech at the allocation launch for the Penjana KPT-CAP.
Also present were Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Noraini Ahmad, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz and Media Prima Bhd Group Chairman Datuk Syed Hussian Syed Junid.
The Penjana KPT-CAP programme, which aims to re-skill and up-skill participating graduates, comprises three sub-programmes, namely the Place and Train which is a competency training by industry players, Entrepreneurship which will offer insights on the vital know-how of kick-starting a company and Gig Economy programmes will provide competency training.
Penjana KPT-CAP, which will begin in October, will be conducted by academics, practitioners and industry players at selected higher education institutions nationwide, especially for graduates who did not secure a job in 2019 as well as those who graduated in 2020.
Muhyiddin also said entrepreneurship should be explored by fresh graduates as it could create more job opportunities for Malaysians.
"I was told that the Higher Education Ministry is ensuring the continuity of entrepreneurship programmes in public universities and I hope this plan will further empower our entrepreneurship agenda in universities," he said.
In her speech earlier, Noraini said the ministry is targeting at least 20,000 graduates to benefit from the Penjana KPT-CAP programmes.
"Up to today, 140 programmes have been arranged involving synergies with over 100 companies. Thank you to all of these companies who are participating in the programmes," she said.
Based on a survey by the ministry, Noraini said 189,543 graduates or 63.5 per cent of the total students who graduated in 2019 managed to secure jobs within six months of completing their studies.
However, about 41,161 graduates are still unemployed from last year and this figure is expected to increase up to 116,161 this year due to the worldwide Covid-19 outbreak.
"To help the graduates with their careers and to increase their employability, the ministry took the initiative to develop the 'Graduates Reference Hub for Employment and Training' portal, also known as GREaT.
"Among the information and services provided on this portal is on job matching, re-skilling and up-skilling programmes, sponsorship and financial aid requests, career counselling service, e-profiling and others," she said.