Malaysia Targets 5,000 Talents Trained In Arm Technology By End Of 2027 - Akmal Nasrullah

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 21 (Bernama) -- Malaysia aims to have at least 5,000 local talents undergo Arm Limited technology training by the end of 2027, as part of efforts to ensure the collaboration with the global technology company contributes meaningfully to the development of the country's high-skilled workforce.

Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said the target is an important benchmark towards fulfilling the commitment to train 10,000 talents over four years under the Malaysia-Arm partnership.

“I want to set a target because it began in 2025... so by the end of 2027, we must reach at least 5,000,” he said at the ministry’s monthly assembly and presentation of a Letter of Offer to Arm Limited here today.

He said 1,530 participants have undergone training so far, and stressed that the initiative needs to be implemented more systematically to ensure the four-year target of 10,000 talents does not remain merely a figure in the agreement.

Akmal Nasrullah said achieving the target would require an average of about 2,500 participants to be trained annually over the four years.

He said the ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resources, Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI), and Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA), is developing a coordinated approach to expand the training programme.

He said discussions with 12 universities last week showed that the institutions have the capacity to collectively train at least 2,500 participants annually.

“We agree that it is far better not to approach this matter in silos. When we talk about training, Arm provides it online.

“However, if this is not properly coordinated through our existing institutions, there is a risk of it becoming a siloed effort,” he said.

He added that several universities have agreed to integrate Arm's training into their existing academic programmes, including incorporating the modules into students' respective fields of study.

He noted that some universities have also agreed to incorporate the training into their industrial training or internship programmes, as well as final-year projects.

According to him, the approach is crucial to ensuring that the training remains relevant to academic programmes and industry requirements, while avoiding fragmented efforts to achieve the target.

He added that participants who complete the Arm training would also have opportunities to undergo industrial training with companies granted Arm Flexible Access (AFA) tokens.

The initiative is aimed at linking the training programme with companies that have access to Arm technology, thereby facilitating the integration of local talent into Malaysia's semiconductor industry ecosystem.

“We do not want our young people, after gaining this exposure, to be recruited by other countries or foreign companies, while companies here claim that talent is unavailable, insufficient, or difficult to find,” he said.

Earlier, Akmal Nasrullah presented letters of offer to two local companies, Oppstar Technology Sdn Bhd and Alphaswift Industries Sdn Bhd.

Both companies have been granted access to Arm Compute Subsystem (CSS) technology and the AFA programme to accelerate integrated circuit design development and semiconductor technology research and development in Malaysia.

-- BERNAMA