NTW 2025 Records Over Two Million Participants

KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 (Bernama) -- The 2025 National Training Week (NTW), held to promote greater participation in skills training among Malaysians, has recorded over two million participants, exceeding its initial one million target.

Human Resources Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong said the third edition of NTW offered more than 71,000 free courses nationwide, conducted physically, online and in hybrid formats, from today until June 21.

“More than 41 per cent of the courses are related to Industry 4.0. To improve the people’s skills in this area, the Human Resources Ministry (KESUMA) collaborated with the Ministry of Education (MOE) to implement the AI-4-Educators programme from April 7 to June 12.

“This is to train nearly 400,000 educators in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for teaching techniques, skills and related issues such as ethics, so that frontliners in our human capital development sector are equipped with the knowledge and skills to face the challenges of the AI era,” he said when speaking at the NTW ceremony at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium here today.

The AI-4-Educators programme, comprising five self-training modules covering the use of AI in teaching, accessibility and ethics, has been recognised by the Malaysia Book of Records for recording the largest participation of educators in an AI training programme.

Sim said the government had allocated about RM10 billion for skills development, of which 30 per cent came from levies imposed on private companies to train their employees.

“KESUMA is aware that with such a large financial allocation, the strategy must be aligned with current needs so that the people can benefit from it. Therefore, last year we introduced the MyMahir portal, which helps not only government agencies and private companies but also individuals to make informed decisions on skills development plans based on economic criteria.

“In this first year, KESUMA found that our trainees earned an average salary that was 12 per cent higher than the general market average. This programme will be expanded more aggressively so that more workers benefit from the MADANI Government’s investment in skills development,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Human Resource Development Corporation (HRD Corp), in a statement, said that among the popular courses during NTW 2025 were Neurodiversity Virtual Training, Cyber Security Threat Management (CSTM), ChatGPT Malaysia Community: Malaysia’s Premier AI Learning Platform, Drone Flying Skills for New Pilots, Tax Planning for Individuals 2025, and Generative AI For Everyone.

All activities implemented under NTW 2025 were based on five primary thrusts, namely Life Skills, Future Skills, Creativity and Innovation, Financial Literacy, and Sustainable Development.

-- BERNAMA