Cultivating Talent Through MIDA

The availability of talents with the right skill sets is one of the critical enablers to sustain Malaysia’s position as an attractive investment destination in the region. With this acknowledgement, MIDA established the Industry Talent Management and Expatriate Division in 2013 as an active conduit between the industry and academia in bridging talent gaps as well as serving investors’ human capital needs. Numerous engagements have enabled the agency to assist in talent needs of the industries and more importantly, such arrangements have contributed to the employability of our local undergraduates.

As the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the year 2020 marked an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and occupational security. The economic and social disruption was devastating with nearly half of the world’s 3.3 billion global workforce was at risk of losing their livelihoods.

Being an active trading nation, Malaysia is not spared as the pandemic directly impacted almost all economic sectors. The situation has resulted in job losses as well as freezing of new hires by employers. Small-scale businesses stagnated, many employees have lost their income while some faced a reduction in their incomes. Slower labour demand and the increase in job losses has led the country’s unemployment rate to rise above 4.0 per cent since April 2020.

Taking cognisant of the situation, MIDA being a responsive agency took action to coordinate talent-related programmes including Industry Career Talks and Open Interviews. Conducted monthly, the dedicated session provides an insightful snapshot of industry knowledge to students, graduates and job seekers. It also serves as a platform for industries to conduct open interviews for the participants. To date, a total of 1,000 participants have benefitted from eight programmes conducted by MIDA that featured prominent companies such as Nestle, Lam Research, PKT Logistics and CJ Century.

The latest ‘Career Talk’ on 21 September 2021 was organised in collaboration with Top Glove Corporation, a global Malaysian company with more than 2,000 customers worldwide. Top Glove plans to hire 2,000 interns for its 41 locations nationwide. The students will have the opportunity to learn about working with the world’s largest glove manufacturer and experience working environment alongside the company’s top managers. The Top Glove’s trainees will be paid an attractive allowance while enriching themselves on various aspects of good manufacturing practices and corporate culture.

A total of 113 students from local universities, TVET institutions and colleges have participated in the programme. In addition to talks by Top Glove on its operations, internship programme and career opportunities, a virtual interview was also conducted to facilitate hiring the best interns for the company.

Mr. Shantinath Sarthinathan, Researcher, Recruitment Group Human Resources in Top Glove shared, “First and foremost, on behalf of Top Glove we would like to thank MIDA for organising a dedicated Internship Career Talk and Online Interview for us. We were happy with the outreach and turnout of potential interns on the day itself. The turnout of candidates during the live interview session was more than satisfactory.”

A potential candidate, Muhammad Amar Syahmi from Mara Japan Industrial Institute (MJII) said, “I never thought that there is a platform available for students to gain exposure on the industry. I am really thankful to MIDA as I got to know about the internship opportunities in Top Glove.”

Another undergrad, Nge Tze Ling from University Tun Hussein Onn (UTHM) added, “ I am very grateful to join the career talk held by MIDA. Through the career talk, I was able to know more details about the background and the work culture of Top Glove. As for the online interview, the HR department provided brief and clear explanations. My gratitude to MIDA and Top Glove for organising this career talk.”

Another impactful and significant initiative by MIDA was launched on 8 October 2021. It was the signing of Memorandum of Agreement with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) for the implementation of the MIDA Assessment Development Center (MADC) HyTalent Programme. The signing ceremony was witnessed by YB. Dato’ Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, Senior Minister and Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI).

MADC HyTalent Programme aims to place university graduates under specific IR4.0, digitalisation and management softskill courses in selected industries that participate in this structured one year programme for new talent skilling.

Moving forward, MIDA will continue to facilitate talent development in Malaysia through various programmes in line with our commitment to enhancing the ecosystem in the country. To know more on MIDA’s MADC initiative, contact the Industry Talent Management And Expatriate Division, MIDA.