KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 — Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli today said that his ministry in collaboration with other related ministries will be opening an academy for technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

He said that this is to address the gap between the skills required for jobs and the training provided.

"If this is successful, God willing, we are confident that the ‘Academy in Factory’ programme for example will train 100,000 youths this year and this will help with the issue of unemployment among youth,” he said.

He added that many TVET certificates are based on outdated models of jobs from the 1990s and 2000s which work with machines, whereas the current situation is that jobs are moving towards automation of tasks.

He also said that it was untrue that the low demand for youth as part of the labour force was due to the increase in the minimum wage.

Instead, it was caused by an incompatible spectrum of jobs and the lack of required skills, such as digital skills.

"Because of that, the government will be giving its attention to programmes such as ‘Academy in Factory’, in which companies will take those compatible with the manufacturing sector, train them and then provide them with jobs,” he said.

Besides that, youth must be given training that is not only based on acquiring a degree, which takes a long time, but also on-the-job training, he added.