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Expansion of PSMB Act enables 58% more people to undergo training under the Human Resources Development Fund.
KUALA LUMPUR: Nearly 2.8 million Malaysian employees will benefit from the expansion of the Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad (PSMB) Act 2001, which will see a boost in the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) training by 2020.
This is an increase of 58% from the current 1.77 million employees.
The expansion of the PSMB Act 2001, which came into effect on April 1, is also expected to encourage more employers to register with HRDF.
The HRDF pools funds in the form of levies collected from employers.
To officiate the amendments to the act, HRDF today inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with six employer associations.
These associations were the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Acccim), the Malay Chamber of Commerce Malaysia (MCCM), the SME Association of Malaysia (SMEAM), the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FFM), the Malaysian Associated Indian Chamber of Commerce (Maicci) and the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF).
HRDF chief executive CM Vignaesvaran Jeyandran said the MoU would encourage eligible employers under the six associations to register for the training.
“If we want to become a developed and high-income nation, we need to be trained.
Vignaesvaran said 65% of Malaysians do not have access to a structured training budget.
He said the expansion allowed HRDF to reach out to more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and help them with their training needs by reducing their financial constraints.
He said as of end-May, there were 19,122 employers across three major economic sectors – manufacturing, service, and mining and quarrying – registered with HRDF.
He added that over 82% of HRDF-registered employers are SMEs who employ 600,000 Malaysian workers.
To achieve the objectives of the MoU, he said HRDF is offering a registration incentive to newly-registered employers who are members of participating employer associations.
He said this was in addition to one free seat or slot at HRDF’s workshops.
In return, he said, participating employer associations would disseminate information to their members on the expansion of the PSMB Act 2001, activities, schemes and programmes offered by HRDF.
Present at the signing ceremony was Human Resources Minister Richard Riot Jaem.
The amendments to the PSMB Act 2001 include the expansion of coverage for “category options” for employers across all sub-sectors under the manufacturing, services, mining and quarrying sectors with five to nine local employees, and the abolition of the paid-up capital criterion for the manufacturing and mining and quarrying sectors.
Employers who are subject to the PSMB Act 2001 are required to register with HRDF within the grace period of six months, from April 1 till Sept 30, as stipulated under subsection 13(1) of the act.
Employers must submit their respective employer registration forms (Form 1) and employer information forms (Form 1A) not later than 30 days from the mentioned date. These forms can be downloaded from HRDF’s official website.
source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/…/an-extra-million-employ…/
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