10MP: Higher Education to be Enhanced, Talents Retained
J-on
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Thursday, June 10, 2010
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Kuala Lumpur, June 10 – A Talent Corporation (TC) will be established in 2011 under the Prime Minister's Department as part of the 10th Malaysian Plan (10MP) with the mandate to attract, motivate and retain the talent needed for a high-income economy.
The TC, in collaboration with the public and private sectors, will jointly develop an integrated National Talent Blueprint by 2011 where the blueprint will provide an end-to-end view by tackling talent issues from pre-school to retirement, and will be demand-driven in collaboration with industry to ensure relevancy to the needs of the market and the knowledge economy.
The blueprint will contain a detailed fact base of the talent pipeline for all priority sectors and National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs), a quantification of supply and demand gaps in the present and the future, an integrated portfolio of initiatives to ensure delivery and the necessary programme governance.
The TC will collaborate with the Immigration Department and Malaysian missions to execute strategies to attract foreign talent and the diaspora to Malaysia, especially those about to graduate from top universities worldwide.
Besides this, programmes such as the Returning Expert Programme and the Brain Gain Programme will be consolidated and enhanced under the TC.
In engaging the diaspora of Malaysia, a detailed database of them, containing information such as expertise in priority economic sectors and background of skills, will be created so that the right people can be engaged, it said.
The government will also expand the programme involving practical on-the-job training through the vocational dual training system and also through graduate internship programmes where internships, soft-skill training and job placement initiatives will be targeted towards unemployed graduates, it said.
Aside from retaining Malaysian overseas talents, the report outlined several initiatives to improve the quality of local education, as follows:
* Expand demand-side financing and undertake new provision of public higher learning institution (IPTA) seats through off-take in private higher learning institutions (IPTS).
* Create private seats in the IPTAs by expanding capacity through private subsidiaries.
* By 2015, 50 per cent of public funds for higher education will be disbursed via demand side and 25 per cent of all IPTA seats will be private "fee-paying" seats.
* Improve quality of IPTS through performance-based funding by expanding the Rating System for Malaysian Higher Education Institutions (SETARA) to cover private universities and college universities and at the faculty level.
* Expand the sliding scale on the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans to promote cost-sharing based on means test of parent's income to ensure financial sustainability and increased access of low and middle income families.
* Introduce a central enrollment system for all students including international students in stages with flexible credit accumulation framework for all courses across public and private provision.
* Provide a conducive educational ecosystem to attract students and world leading faculties in niche areas to set up branches in Malaysia.
* Intensify marketing and promotion efforts in high potential markets.
-- BERNAMA
