Nurturing young talent

Shareen says the group aged between 15 and 24 years old, makes up 42.9 of Malaysia’s workforce.

THE country’s backbone rests on young talent.

Therefore, it is important to nurture them well as they can bridge the critical gaps within the country’s key economic sectors, says Shareen Shariza Abdul Ghani.

Defining “young talent” as those aged between 15 and 24 years old, the TalentCorp chief executive officer says the group makes up 17.9% of Malaysia’s workforce.

With this in mind, the corporation aims to strengthen its efforts for Malaysian youth through its signature programmes such as Nurturing Expert Talent (NEXT), MyAPEC YouthConnect, MyAsean Internship and Scholarship Talent Attraction and Retention (STAR) for 2018.

TalentCorp has partnered with several local universities to implement NEXT, a national talent analytics platform that assesses an individual’s career, interests, personal values and preferences through a talent profiling system.

In addition, TalentCorp’s MyAPEC YouthConnect focuses on promoting talent mobility among the young through work placements in companies with business presence within the Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) region, between a four to 12 month period.

TalentCorp says it seeks to explore more partnerships with foreign government agencies and companies within the Apec region to tap on their young talent and explore short-term employment for Malaysian youth abroad.

“We take pride in connecting our young talents with opportunities, locally or abroad, as we strongly believe in talent mobility, which in turn encourages brain circulation and balances the inflow of talent within the country.

“We can then tap on these talents with international exposure to close the critical skill based gaps within our key economic sectors,” Shareen adds.

Its MyAsean Internship programme, on the other hand, allows Malaysian undergraduates to intern with employers in various Asean countries.