KUALA LUMPUR: Professional certification courses should be made more accessible to youths, particularly among the underprivileged.
Raja Muda Selangor Tengku Amir Shah Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah urged the government and industry players to step up efforts in providing professional training to youths so they will be better equipped in the working world.
"There is an abundance of professional certification courses offered in Malaysia, and these are sponsored by employers.
"There is a need to give more access to such professional certification courses to our youths in order to level the playing field.
"Make professional certifications such as Microsoft Azure; Amazon Web Services or others accessible and available. We must also remove the financial barriers that come with it," he said during his keynote speech at the 2023 Youth Empowerment (YEF2023) Fair at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here today.
Tengku Amir said professional certification courses and internship programmes will boost a person's employability rate, and this is particularly important he or she is faced with job opportunities that require work experience.
He also urged industry players to expand apprenticeship and internship programmes, and to ensure that these initiative comes with sufficient allowance for the youth participants.
"We all know that learning theory is not enough. That is why a practical approach is to work and gain the skills needed in an actual work setting.
"It's always that chicken and egg problem the youth are faced with. The expansion of these internship or apprenticeship programmes will help them gain more white-collar or blue-collar skills that are required for the industries they want to enter," he said.
Tengku Amir also touched on the country's brain drain which saw young talents moving abroad for better work opportunities.
He urged the government to offer policies that would encourage the youth to work and serve the country.
"We need the government to have the right policies to encourage young people who are studying overseas to return home with a fair sense of (work) opportunities.
"A lot of Malaysians are working overseas because there are better and fair working opportunities.
"The government needs to address these issues by creating fairer and inclusive opportunities for the community," he said.
Also present at the event was YEF2023 patron Muhamad Kamil Abdul Munim.