The Need to Reskill, Upskill & Multi-Skill

As the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) or known as the digital transformation of industrial markets take over the world rapidly, it is only apt that Malaysian organisations too have been enthusiastic about embedding this change. The IR 4.0 brings with it a host of 9 main pillars of technological breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of things (IoT), big data analytics, autonomous vehicles, nanotechnology and many more.

Therefore since 2017, the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) has been vigorously promoting and insistent to organisations to adopt and adapt to this new technological era. The HRDF is an organisation that constantly invests in various upskilling and capacity-building programmes for all sectors, particularly the small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) nationwide. For everyone, the moment of change comes with the embracement of growth, resilience and renewal. Therefore, companies and industries now have a monumental task ahead of them and must keep abreast with the latest technologies and innovations that affect the industry.

The HRDF has a Sectorial Training Committee which assesses the industry needs and matches them to the right certification programmes in addressing existing industrial issues for example skills shortage, talent hiring, retention and management, change management and moving skilled workers up the career ladder by multi-skilling them. It is hoped that this governmental initiative to fund reskilling and upskilling programmes will encourage employers to train their staff via certification programmes that are recognised by professional bodies.

But how about the most valuable and sustainable asset of an organisation: its employees? The stumbling block to the country wholly embracing IR 4.0 is the local industry and the workforce who are still not ready to take that step towards this new reality. In order to help prepare the nation’s human capital for the revolution, employers must look at reskilling, upskilling and multi-skilling their employees in order to equip each staff to go beyond their job scope when the need arises. This is contradictory to the conventional ideology, which was to train staff within the parameters of their specific job scope instead.

Recently Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan cited, “employees should always find ways to upgrade their skills for the future should their jobs be taken over by robotics and automation” (The Star, April 19, 2019). He said it was critical for employees to be reskilled, upskilled and multi-skilled plus be able to embrace change openly to help improve productivity. This was crucial as the survey conducted by YouGov Omnibus, aa global real-time public and data research revealed that in 2016 and 2017, the local banking industry tapped on the financial technology platform and close to 20,000 people lost their jobs (YouGov Omnibus survey, 2017).

Hence, the Malaysian government is now proactively emphasising on the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The empowerment of TVET is critical to address the expected increase in demand for 1.3 million additional TVET workers by 2020 (The Star, March 17, 2019). A stronger focus for TVET has been projected to potentially lower the youth unemployment rate, address the issue of underemployment, and bridge the skills gap between new graduates and employers. Besides, TVET’s agenda is to equip the Malaysian workforce with the skills required for the IR 4.0, by reducing the current dependency on foreign workers, increasing national competitiveness and driving Malaysia to become a developed country.

The hoary phrase ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ will no longer be valid in this IR 4.0 age as employees and workers are now required to be a master of several trades to remain competitive and relevant in the industry. It is imperative and high time for all sectors to join forces and expertise to find the right solutions to reskill, upskill and multi-skill their local staff for them to be well prepared to face and adapt to the rapid digital transformation. This will also contribute to the nation’s economic growth and simultaneously makes way for the emergence of great leaders and successors.

By
Dr. Dayana N. H. Chaskar