CYBERJAYA, 13 December 2021: Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Malaysia’s lead digital economy agency, today announced the “Learn for Free” category of courses through its Digital Skills Training Directory to support the upskilling and reskilling of Malaysian talents amid the economic recovery.
One of the key findings in the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report 2020 is that skill disparity continues to be present as in-demand skills across jobs are expected to change in the next five years.
On average, companies estimated that around 40 percent of their workers will require reskilling of six months or less, and 94 percent of business leaders reported that they expect employees to pick up new skills on the job, the report added.
The report also revealed that by 2025, 85 million jobs will likely be displaced due to a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines in addition to the increasingly redundant roles.
Within the context of the digital economy, Malaysia has set an eye on raising the targeted economic contribution from the sector by 2025, from 22.6 percent to 25.5 percent as revealed in the Twelfth Malaysia Plan (12MP).
The raised target comes with a heavier responsibility for the government's digital arms to expedite harnessing the right workforce.
“Digitalisation has been well underway even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has amplified the need for our talents to be reskilled and upskilled to meet the requirements of the fast-evolving job market.
“Carrying out one of the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint’s (MyDIGITAL) core thrusts, MDEC, in collaboration with renowned global technology companies, is offering selected in-demand training courses for all Malaysians on the Digital Skills Training Directory. With this latest initiative, we hope to encourage more Malaysians to kick-start their digital reskilling journey,” Dr. Sumitra Nair, Chief Digital Skills and Jobs Officer, MDEC.
Addressing the changing labour market, the fourth and latest category added to MDEC’s Digital Skill Training Directory is offered for free through joint efforts between MDEC and top global technology companies. This latest initiative has kicked off with Facebook, Google and IBM and will be expanded to include more technology partners in 2022.
For a start, courses are being offered in the fields of digital marketing, freelancer training, cloud and quantum computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, cybersecurity, data science and emerging technologies.
In addition to “Learn for Free”, the Digital Skills Training Directory also offers paid courses through three other categories - “Work and Learn”, “Career Upgrade” and “Learning on Demand”.
Launched on 24 August 2020, the Digital Skills Training Directory serves as a one-stop guide to digital reskilling and upskilling, offering a catalogue of courses and online training that have been reviewed and endorsed by MDEC’s Talent Expert Network (TEN).
MDEC TEN is a group of industry representatives who are subject matter experts in various digital technology domains. To date, more than 300 courses are listed on the Digital Skills Training Directory.
For more information on “Learn for Free”, please visit https://mdec.my/learn-for-free/.