DESPITE the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of digital job vacancies has increased about 3.5 times from around 19,000 in June 2020 to more than 72,000 as at June 2021, said Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).
With the largest share of vacancies posted on LinkedIn, the most popular jobs were in e-Commerce, Cybersecurity/Networking and Creative Content/Design.
“This indicates that companies and businesses are still hiring, and this is why upskilling and reskilling play a big role to ensure that the demand of the workforce by the industry could be fulfilled and the skills of the workforce remain relevant,” said MDEC CEO Surina Shukri.
“MDEC through its initiatives such as ‘Let’s Learn Digital’ and the ‘Digital Skills Training Directory’ strives to support the upskilling and reskilling of Malaysians.”
According to Surina, globally there has been an increasing trend for companies to prioritise skills over qualification.
For instance, established companies like Google, Apple, Tesla and IBM do not require a college degree to land a job (source: Glassdoor, 2020).
In Malaysia, a survey found that 38% of companies are likely to hire candidates with skills rather than qualification or experience, said a LinkedIn Future of Talent 2021 report.
“As a result we are also starting to see more and more current institutions that are offering courses with added focus on industry-required skills like 42KL, GA, Next Academy and Forward School.
“With shelf life of skills estimated to be only around two to three years, the Malaysian workforce has to be agile and constantly seek to reskills and upskill themselves to remain relevant in the digital technology,” said Surina.
On MDEC’s end, the agency is launching the second edition of its ‘Let’s Learn Digital’ programme, to upskill Malaysians in the workforce to be equipped for an increasingly digitally dependent workforce.
“We need to make lifelong learning a culture especially in the Digital Technology sector where the change is rapid,” Surina remarked.
“In collaboration with industry partners and learning providers, we are offering in-demand courses and certification to encourage more Malaysians to pick up these skills and upgrade themselves, thus providing more career opportunities.”
Last year, MDEC partnered with Coursera and offered 3,800 course. For this year’s edition, the focus is on Digital Marketing content in collaboration with Facebook, Google and LinkedIn.
The courses will be offered free until Oct 31, 2021 and is open to all Malaysians. – Aug 5, 2021.
