KUALA LUMPUR: NOR Najwa Razali, 25, is hopeful that she can secure a job soon with the various Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) initiatives announced by the government recently.
The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Malay Literature graduate is among those who were laid off from a publication company recently.
"I waited in anticipation for an announcement like this. It will help those who have been retrenched and I would like to learn new skills that would provide job opportunities for me. I used to work as a book editor, but I am willing to learn something new and apply it to my next job.
"I am looking at possible courses like office administration and hope that there are some initiatives that I can apply through Penjana.
"This is because I am not entitled to the RM4,000 training allowance for retrenched workers, who are not covered under the Employment Insurance System.
"I hope that companies will give another opportunity for those who had been retrenched, with the RM800 incentive for employers who hire those under 40, among others, being a boost for them," said Najwa, who is currently staying with her mother in Rawang.
She had been applying for various jobs, including clerical positions in several companies, since she was laid off in March, but to no avail.
To occupy her time and earn a little income, she has been helping her cousin who runs a small business producing jeruk buah (pickled fruits).
MauKerja chief executive officer Ray Teng said its website received an average of 100,000 visitors daily before the Movement Control Order (MCO).
"However, during the MCO in March and April, the traffic dropped to about 40,000 to 50,000 visits daily.
"We thought more people would be looking for jobs during this period. However, we see the trend changing towards the end of April and May. In June, our daily traffic increased to about 110,000.
"We need to look at the overview, perspective, new skills and knowledge that would take some time depending on the nature of the job. Blue-collar job training usually takes a shorter time, maybe one or two weeks, but white-collar job training sessions would take longer. So, the training would be for medium and long term. We need time to see the impact before job seekers are recruited by companies.
"From MauKerja's perspective, we work hard to train job seekers on skills in applying for jobs. This kind of training is the missing link in the market.
"A lot of training providers focus more on the training of skills, but not much attention is given on skills involving job hunting, such as writing resumes and attending interviews."
He said apart from academic qualifications and job experience, job seekers could increase their employability by adopting a positive attitude in their work culture.
"Times have changed and more companies' human resources personnel are looking at the (applicants') attitude, apart from the academic qualifications and experience. Some companies operate on a fast-paced and high-pressured atmosphere. So, if you can't adapt to their work culture, you would end up resigning in three months. This is something we need to understand."
He said those retrenched or facing pay cut during the MCO period were forced to either look for a new job or temporary jobs in the burgeoning gig economy.
GoGet co-founder Francesca Chia said the training programmes could be of value if it involved learning a new skill, improving one's professional language skills, allows the gaining of more expertise and value to bring to the table when they are engaged in a job.
She said the allocation by the government for the reskilling and upskilling would be effective if job seekers were focused on skills that the mass market required because "it was the mass market that has been hit by unemployment".
"I think firstly, it is important to have the whole picture in mind because employability and upskilling are only relevant if the companies and businesses can afford to even employ.
"Today, the main bar to this is that businesses are not getting much sales and customers during the MCO period. This is why businesses have to manage their costs," she said.
She said policies on spending and driving consumer expenditure was the key for businesses to ultimately get more orders before they could start spending on hiring more people.
"We see the users (employers) on our platform seeking a part-timer who is well-rounded, who can do the job technically and possesses soft skills.
"This is important in times like this when our part-timers have to be flexible for the demand and the challenging times as well. We are always willing to help the businesses working with our GoGetter part-timers to grow and get more revenue and sales."