KUALA LUMPUR: The government will improve the mechanism of the Bina Kerjaya programme initiative to increase participation in the programme.
The Bina Kerjaya programme under the Kerjaya Madani incentive provides training skills to those working in the informal sector to strengthen the labour market.
Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar said the uptake of the training, particularly among gig workers, was low, as most preferred to earn their daily wages through their freelance work instead of attending training.
"When they are being asked to attend training (under the Bina Kerjaya programme), they would have to let go of paid opportunities that they would normally accept throughout the period of their training.
"A lot of them decline to attend because they would lose out on their earnings.
"We are looking at how we can improve the method or mechanism of this initiative to attract more people, especially those in the gig economy, to upskill themselves," he told reporters after launching the International Public Employment Forum 2023, organised by the Social Security Organisation (Socso) here, today.
He said the government had allocated RM42 million for Socso to provide upskilling training programmes for those working in the informal sector, including gig workers.
"There is an increase in the number of gig workers in the country, and we currently have about 1.1 million gig workers so we need to pay serious attention to this sector.
"We also have approaches to ensure that they have social protection and want to ensure that they are given the opportunity to move into the formal sector.
"This is why we have the Bina Kerjaya programme under the Kerjaya Madani incentive, to give them training with hopes that they can go into the formal working sector," he added.
The Kerjaya Madani incentive was announced during the tabling of the 2023 Budget, with a total allocation of RM313 million.
The incentive focuses on three elements, namely; the Daya Kerjaya programme, the Daya Kerjaya programme for Technical Education and Vocational Training, and Bina Kerjaya.