Story & pix by Danny Ooi
HUNDREDS of job seekers and industry workers on July 23 flocked to the Vistana Hotel in Bukit Jambul to check out the jobs available in the market.
The one-day event which was co-organised by the Penang state government, Pen Expo and SME Seberang Perai saw 20 factories coming together to recruit staff for the some 1,265 vacancies available in various industries ranging from insurance, health care, semiconductor, electronic manufacturing services to recruitment consultancy.
Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin launched the event.
In his speech, he said building a strong human capital development is the backbone of an economy to sustainably flourish development of a country.
It is also the key measure pulling Malaysia (or Penang) out of the middle-income trap.
“Despite the fact that Malaysia has shown an increase in the number of higher education institutions and has led to a significant quantitative increase in the number of graduates, its qualitative enhancement of human capital has not kept pace with quantitative expansion,”
added Sim, who represented Deputy Chief Minister 1 Datuk Mohd Rashid Hasnon at the opening of the event.
Also present were managing director of PenExpo Events Sdn Bhd, Francis Wong, SME Seberang Perai treasurer Leong Yook Kheong and event co-ordinator Nelson Neoh.
Sim commented that in Penang, skilled labour shortage remains quantitatively challenging.
Though Penang recorded a low unemployment rate of 1.5%, the issue of labour shortage is not obviously reflected in the data.
“This gave rise to concerns over skills deficiency where skills mismatches occur between supply and demand for graduates. From the manpower perspective, the supply of high-skilled labour is still inadequate in Penang,” he added.