By WU VUIDE
KOTA KINABALU: More than half or 58.6 per cent of the unemployed in Sabah are youths aged 15 to 24, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
He added that 55.8 per cent of the total unemployed individuals have only completed secondary school education, based on data from the Department of Statistics.
“These figures indicate that many youths need skills training and further education to improve their employability,” he said.
Recent statistics also show that Sabah’s unemployment rate has decreased from around 8.2 per cent in 2021 to 7.5 per cent in 2023, he said.
Although this figure is higher than the national unemployment rate, the downward trend is encouraging and reflects the effectiveness of the government’s various economic and human capital development initiatives, he said.
As such, he said the State Government fully supports the strengthening of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) ecosystem to ensure Sabah youths are competitive in the job market.
He said the establishment of the Sabah TVET Council in May this year was a significant paradigm shift in the state’s TVET development landscape.
TVET must gain traction as the mainstream education choice to produce a skilled workforce that can shape Sabah’s future, he said at the two-day Sabah TVET Symposium held at a hotel.
His speech was read by Deputy Chief Minister II and Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Dr Joachim Gunsalam.
Hajiji said the government recognises that technical and vocational skills are fundamental to the development of the state’s diverse potential from natural resources, the oil and gas sector, agriculture, tourism and manufacturing.
The government urges youths to consider TVET as a primary option, not merely an alternative, in planning their future to produce future professionals, entrepreneurs and innovators.
He said Sabah’s youth must seize the opportunity to pursue TVET, as the courses are aligned with current job market demands.
He added that in the era of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and the wave of digitalisation, skills in technical fields, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are valuable assets.
