WHILE big plans for upskilling Malaysia’s workforce are being rolled out starting this month, the majority of low-skilled workers do not know where to go to get trained, a survey of young people targeted by such schemes shows.

Over RM19 billion has been allocated for various training programmes in Budget 2021, including RM3.7 billion for the Employment Generation Guarantee Scheme (JanaKerja), which aims to create 500,000 new jobs that involve upgrading skills and retraining.

However, a survey by The Centre policy institute among non-graduate gig workers shows that while 78% of respondents indicated an interest in reskilling, 68% have never undertaken a skills development or training programme before. Furthermore, over half of them claimed not to know where or how to access courses relevant to them (see Chart 3).

A key issue is that the training ecosystem is difficult to navigate for low-skilled informal workers, the institute says in its report on the survey, which mostly involved delivery riders contracted by foodpanda and e-hailing drivers.

Ironically, there is a plethora of training programmes across various ministries and agencies, which require “buy in and coordination” among them, says The Centre’s research director Nelleita Omar in an online interview with The Edge.

Another point to note, she says, is that the policymaking mindset in the government needs to change.

“The programmes and policies have very good intentions, but are still quite top down. Not a lot of investment is put in to find out how people access what is available or what people actually do on the ground. We need to better understand what their behaviours are and their day-to-day constraints, because each demographic is going to behave very differently and is under different constraints.”

Bearing this in mind, the policy institute undertook the survey last August and September to see how reskilling could benefit low-income workers and people without tertiary education since this group is highly vulnerable to economic shocks.

“We formed a pretty good understanding of what is required so that the target groups will actually consider reskilling,” says Nelleita.

A major sticking point for this worker segment is the high risk and opportunity cost of taking up reskilling.

“Apart from not knowing where or how to access relevant courses, top considerations in taking up reskilling include: having programmes that genuinely match their interest, having sufficient income replacement during the programme duration, and knowing the programme’s effectiveness — that is, whether job placement is ensured or [there is a] likelihood of setting up a sustainable business,” The Centre says in a statement announcing the survey findings.

“If you don’t really know whether your life is going to improve after taking the course, it’s quite a high opportunity cost for you because you need those hours spent on studying to earn your income,” says Nelleita.

Current funding options are not uniformly accessible to all workers, the survey finds.

Establishing and funding reskilling accounts for vulnerable segments, for example workers earning below the median wage, would ensure greater coverage while reducing the complexity of delivering training programmes, it states.

A third key issue is weak mentoring and social capital support for workers in the survey group.

“Unlike those from higher-income backgrounds, the majority of respondents have never received career guidance,” the policy institute states.

The survey findings raise the question of whether reskilling should be part of our social safety net, says Nelleita.

“If we take an aid scheme like the Bantuan Sara Hidup programme, we see that it is cash in hand for the target group. That’s for the short term. In the long term, should we be considering reskilling as part of the social safety net, especially for people earning below the median wage?” she asks.

In line with this premise, a more inclusive funding mechanism than the current cash transfer method would be needed, she says.

“It would probably be better to withdraw the current funding system and create accounts for everybody below a certain income, from which they can draw down for reskilling courses.”

A well-functioning national reskilling programme, says the institute, would involve skills mapping and course curation to match workers’ needs with training opportunities.

A core policy recommendation is to establish easy-to-navigate skills maps, in Bahasa Malaysia and English, that allow workers to assess their current competencies against occupational or entrepreneurship skills that are in demand.

A system needs to be developed to link skill groupings to courses or programmes that have been screened for time flexibility, language of instruction, student rating, eligibility criteria and funding availability, it says.

“Our survey shows that a majority of gig workers want to be their own boss,” says Nelleita. “So let’s curate all courses that deal with entrepreneurship with F&B, and make them accessible to those who want them,” she says. This could then be replicated over sectors.

Based on the survey feedback, most gig workers do not like classroom instruction. Instead, they like to be guided in the work environment, and want real-life experience.

“So let’s curate only those courses that have real mentoring. As part of the training, you have to set up something small and see if that works for you,” says Nelleita.

Researcher Edwin Goh of The Centre observes that current training programmes do not emphasise mentoring.

“What’s needed is not just training in new technologies, for example, or street food vending skills. The participants would want trainers to not just teach them to cook, or how to set up a stall, but they want mentoring for growth. Current programmes are lacking in that aspect,” he says.

While some large corporations like Petronas and AirAsia have established schemes that nurture non-graduate workers, it would be harder for smaller-scale companies to provide such support, says Nelleita. These firms need to band together with others in their industry to develop the necessary skills in their labour pool.

Among other insights from the study is the respondents’ modest expectations about future income.

Some 51% of study respondents are optimistic that their future income will improve while 49% feel that it will likely be the same or worse than today, the report states. Roughly a third of the “optimists” expect an improvement in general economic conditions. Many more, namely 65%, are hoping for a change in career prospects, either in having a full-time job, having their own business or gaining better skills/qualifications.

The majority of respondents — 85% — currently earn under RM3,000 a month. Hopes for future income appear constrained and not overly high: 53% feel that they may earn up to RM3,500 a month while 19% feel that they may earn up to RM5,000 a month. Nevertheless, there is expectation of social mobility: 70% of respondents feel that they will earn more than their parents in their lifetime, says the report.

“What I found eye-opening about the survey was that the expectation of future income was not much higher than today — that was quite sobering. We are not talking about big dreams here. We should at least be able to meet that expectation,” says Nelleita.

From the viewpoint of a hypothetical delivery rider named Ahmad, the way forward is fraught with multiple challenges.

“He gets job-related information from his gig platform, as well as family and friends,” says Nelleita. “In reality, inputs from the second source are limited because he is from the rural area where there is little access to the relevant data. Even if career advice is available through his gig platform, it is not a core function of the organisation but likely to be a form of corporate social responsibility. Alternatively, Ahmad could read something in the papers, but overall, his sources are quite limited.”

If Ahmad turns to government initiatives like Penjana, the national economic recovery plan to counter the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, he will find that getting assistance is not so straightforward, says Nelleita.

“The Penjana website basically leads to other landing pages. So practically, Ahmad’s best bet would be to seek help from Mara, which would then link him to various options,” she says.

“That’s only the first step. Ahmad will want to know: ‘Is the course flexible? Is it going to take up 10 hours in my day, when I could be delivering parcels?’

“Our question for policymakers is: ‘How do they know that the allocations are really getting to the demographic that needs the money?’”says Nelleita.