TUARAN, July 16 ― The Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) is implementing various new initiatives to ensure that more employment opportunities can be provided for youths, thus reducing the unemployment rate among the group.

Its Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said among the initiatives were implementing the Youth Career (Y-Career) and Skill for Youth (S4Y) programmes that provided job matching services as well as intensive training for youths.

"In conjunction with the national-level National Youth Day celebration here, there are more than 1,000 job opportunities offered through the Y-Career programme.

"Meanwhile, through the S4Y programme, a total of RM3 million has been allocated to provide 2,000 training courses (for youths),” he said at the national-level National Youth Day 2022 celebration which was officiated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, at Padang Pekan Tuaran today.

Also present were Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor and Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin.

Earlier, Ismail Sabri in his opening speech said the unemployment rate among youths aged between 15 and 40 nationwide has dropped to 5.3 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared to 5.9 per cent in the same period last year.

In line with this year’s National Youth Day celebration theme, namely "Ini Masa Kita” (This is Our Time), Ahmad Faizal said youths can no longer adopt a "wait-and-see” approach.

Instead, he said youths must continue to move forward and strive to improve themselves, especially after the country faced a difficult situation due to the spread of Covid-19.

Ahmad Faizal said based on the findings of the Malaysian Youth Index in 2021 for the economic domain, the score for employability was at an unsatisfactory level, namely 59.07.

In this regard, he said KBS placed great emphasis on innovation based on the industrial revolution 4.0 and efforts to strengthen the country’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes to meet labour market requirements.

He also said more than RM25.5 million had been allocated by the government to strengthen the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for the 2021 to 2025 period. ― Bernama