Question:
a ) Discuss the chances and challenges of holding entree to a broader work force.

Answer:

The Workforce is the entire figure of a country’s population employed in the armed forces and civilian occupations. plus those unemployed people who are really seeking paying work. In other words. work force besides refers to Entire figure of employee ( normally excepting the direction ) on an employer’s paysheet. It may besides intend all those that are available for work. Workers may be unionized. whereby the brotherhood conducts dialogues sing wage and conditions of employment. In the event of industrial agitation. brotherhoods provide a coordinative function in forming ballots of the work force. and strike action. As the universe becomes globalise. the work force in industries/companies become diversifies. The broader work force make up from employees that come from different age groups. race. beliefs. gender etc.

Opportunities
Provide developing on nucleus competences

Devise preparation is needed to turn to the demands of different degrees of workers. including preparation directed at entry-level and less skilled staff. workers with grades non straight relevant to afterschool. and workers prosecuting certificates. We can non afford to disregard the workers who stay merely a short clip or work half-time. because they make up excessively big a part of our work force. They need some minimal degree of cognition in the nucleus competences required to work in afterschool plans. Furthermore. supplying preparation and back uping chase of a certificate is an first-class manner to further an fond regard to the field.

Expand Quality preparation and professional development chances Quality preparation and professional development chances are needed to be expanded for all workers. including promoting plans to give workers paid clip off to go to preparation. Another demand is for attacks such as distance acquisition to increase entree to preparation in rural countries. We besides should set up a nucleus group of high quality. recognized. and approved trainers and promote ways to portion the cognition of experient afterschool staff. for illustration. through mentoring younger staff.

Provide afterschool/youth work content in higher instruction course of study We need to work with establishments of higher instruction to supply more class work relevant to youth work and afterschool that could be accessed by workers and pupils prosecuting certificates or a grade. We besides need to work with these establishments to turn to the demands of the grownup scholars in our work force who would be campaigners for these classs.

Advocate for funding for preparation and professional development Policymakers at all degrees need to supply more support specifically for preparation and professional development for afterschool staff through supports such as scholarships and loan forgiveness. In recommending for such support. the afterschool field demands to foreground the connexion between positive results for kids and young person in afterschool—a end endorsed by policymakers—and the makings of the staff that provide afterschool services.

Provide human resources staff with the preparation and resources they need to enroll and engage Although the focal point of this undertaking and ensuing study is on the current afterschool work force. it’s hard non to see the demand for effectual recruiting and engaging techniques in afterschool plans. A program’s work force begins with. and its success reflects. the recruiting and hiring of employees who are adequately matched to a program’s nucleus competences and demands.

Challenges

Developing specific schemes for making the mark populations There are people 18- 59 old ages old in the population who are all needed in the workplace and who need the education/training to take advantage of the chance it provides. The challenge is to develop selling runs and services that focus on each of these groups. their specific education/training demands. and their demand for user friendly entree. bringing. and support systems. Further. there are important displacements in the gender. ethnicity. and work experience within these populations. Analyzing these displacements identifies targeted chances for increased engagement and support. The deficiency of clear. systemic. and complete information continues to be one of the major barriers to these populations. Several recent surveies suggest the deficiency of utile labour market information contribute to the deficiency of engagement.

Developing a series of strategic confederations with business/industrial associations. professional associations. and assessment organisations Education course of study and competence criterions are no longer within the exclusive sphere of the academy. Such countries as instruction content. accomplishment. and application are all contemplations of changeless developments in the universe external to higher instruction. It is no longer possible for free standing independent instruction and preparation organisations to one-sidedly keep currency with the quickly altering demands of the new economic system. Curriculum is no longer fixed. remarkable. or limited in range. Competence criterions are germinating at increasing rates as are the related appraisals. Further. the enlargement of multiple employer related bringing options every bit good as the growing in industry recognized certificates suggest the demand for formal confederations with external spouses.

Employer Associations

Three cardinal displacements have shaken the employer universe: 1 ) the rapid alterations in engineering and productiveness and the resulting impact on work force accomplishments. 2 ) the dramatic displacement in demographics with the loss of skilled workers and the deficiency of skilled entrants. and 3 ) the trouble placing effectual educational ‘pipelines’ for skilled appliers. Both employers and pedagogues are looking to industrial associations as spouses in developing the definition of new accomplishments and competences. the related course of study. the needed appraisals and. the resulting certificates. The move towards alliance ( tuning ) is progressively dependent on association partnerships.

Effective associations will hold systems of uninterrupted betterment that will guarantee alliance between their instruction and developing spouses every bit good as their employer rank. This communicating system opens up the
grapevine for skilled workers and provides a communicating system for internships. work based acquisition. and ultimate support for arrangement of alumnuss within the industry. The primary intent of these confederations is to guarantee both the uninterrupted alliance and portability of academic content and results with the invariably altering outlooks of both the employer and academic universe.

Industry Recognized Certifications ( IRC )

Opportunities for more formal confederations occur with associations that sponsor formal industry enfranchisements. These offer industry acknowledgment of certificates and their accompanying competences. They offer the single portability of their recognized certificates and the establishment a agency of alining course of study. competences. and appraisals. An exceeding chance exists in supplying academic recognition to pupils enrolled in plans ensuing in industry recognized enfranchisements. Students engaged in proficient preparation would be more inclined to remain in a plan if they receive industry recognized certificates every bit good as specific credits toward academic or proficient Associate grades. This creates a alone chance to prosecute pupils in seamless system of lifelong uninterrupted larning. The chances for long term strategic confederations with industry associations are tremendous and offer great selling benefits.

Alliances with Professional and International Organizations Forming strategic confederations with professional organisations and accreditors ensures both alliance of course of study and result criterions every bit good as guaranting the portability of the credits and certificates. These confederations are going progressively recognized as important grapevines for qualified professional appliers and they offer exceeding selling chances to both pupil appliers and industry.

Development of a ‘One Stop’ entree to the new economic system

A ‘one halt centers’ is needed for persons to: 1 ) acquire labour market information about high wage/high growing industries. 2 ) obtain available accomplishment criterions and/or IRC’s. 3 ) accredit their past preparation. instruction. and experience. 4 ) addition advice and reding on come ining station secondary instruction. 5 ) receive aid with entryway to recognized academic and preparation plans. and. 6 ) acquire aid with arrangement within the industry. The major job with the labour market accommodation system in the United States is a wholly bifurcated and user unfriendly information. guidance. reding. crediting. accessing. funding. and education/training system.

Both the unemployed. re-entering grownups and first clip pupils are extremely nomadic scholars who are looking for the entree portal to the new economic system. Stagnate outdated bureaus. policies and systems are merely incapable of presenting such services. It is clip to develop a new online system that would guarantee all citizens ongoing and easy entree to apprehensible and timely occupation lucifers. labour market information. and certificates needed for the new economic system. All station secondary establishments have a alone chance to take part in the edifice of this broader set of services into a publicly crystalline system.

Ability to offer. give a perceptual experience of and have the repute of supplying a ‘Guarantee’ This is the branch of the demand to shut the cringle between employers. pupils. and pedagogues. The primary inquiry is: does the establishments system of identified larning results run into the academic and proficient criterions of the new economic system and. so. does it ‘ensure’ that every alumnus meets those criterions? This means establishing criterions. course of study. and appraisals that achieve these degrees and guaranting that every alumnus meets them. When deficient public presentation is recognized there is a system of redress and finally the failure to graduate if the pupil merely can non run into the institutional criterions. Some would add that for any pupil hired which the employer believes does non run into the criterion. the school would take them back and rectify them at no cost.

While this would come with a cost. it is far more of import to develop a repute with employers for bring forthing alumnuss that meet the industry criterions for tomorrow’s economic system. While this of import for employers. it is imperative for pupils who want to be certain that the education/training they are engaged in will in fact fix them for the new economic system. Action on this challenge represents a cardinal displacement off from the old system of ‘education opportunity’ . For the hereafter. it is about extremely nomadic pupils accessing a system that ‘ensures’ their accomplishment of the competences required for the new economic system. America’s exceptionally diverse station secondary instruction system has the capacity and committedness to implement this new relationship.

( B ) What extend Malaysia has benefited and besides able to develop ain Knowledge worker.

The Malayan labour force is by and large educated. This is because young persons who enter the labour market would hold undergone at least 11 old ages of schooling. Furthermore. the proportion of labour force with secondary and third instruction has risen over the old ages. doing them easier to be trained and to larn new accomplishments. However. it has been argued that there is a deficit of skilled labour in Malaysia. This deficit in skilled labour was believed to be one of the causes for the stringency in the Malayan labour market during the 1980s and 1990s. alongside a mismatch between demand for and supply of labour. Malaysia’s response to this affair is one of the grounds for the nation’s focal point on human capital development in recent old ages.

Since the mid-1990s. Malaysia has entered into a stage where new accent and demand for high engineering and knowledge-based industries were in topographic point. A alteration in the Malayan economic policies was. hence. needed in order to keep the nation’s fight. Knowledge-based economic system is defined as one that is “directly based on the production. distribution and usage of cognition and information… towards growing in high engineering investings. high-technology industries. more extremely skilled labour and associated productiveness gains” .

Malaysia adopted this definition into its Knowledge-based Economy Master Plan. which defines a knowledge-based economic system as “an economic system where cognition. creativeness and invention play an ever-increasing and of import function in bring forthing and prolonging growth” . The Maestro Plan was developed to supply a strategic model sketching the needed alterations to the basicss of the Malayan economic system. Since the construct of a knowledge-based economic system revolves around cognition and information as the cardinal subscribers to economic growing and development. the move towards a knowledge-based economic system is expected to supply Malaysia with the necessary fight in order to accomplish a developed state position and run into the aims of Vision 2020.

Several grounds were given as to why Malaysia should travel into the knowledge-based economic system. First. the state has lost its planetary fight in pulling FDI when it fell from the eighteenth topographic point in 1994 to the 29th topographic point in 2001. as reported the World Competitiveness Yearbook ( IMD. assorted old ages ) . Related to this is the increasing competition for the country’s merchandises from other developing states. such as China. India. Vietnam and Indonesia that enjoy cheaper labour and more abundant resources. This is particularly true in the instance of China. where it has been reported that cheaper and equal quality goods from this new economic power. chiefly in labour intensive fabrics. would convey about stiff competition to Malaysia’s export goods in its domestic and international markets.

Third. Malaysia’s economic policies have been affected by globalisation and liberalisation as barriers and protective walls that help prolong local industries are easy removed and brought down. As a consequence. Malaysia. like all other developing economic systems will hold to seek for new merchandises and services that are executable in the emerging planetary market where the differentiation between local and universe markets is bit by bit vanishing. Such goods and services like aircraft. pharmaceuticals. ecommerce. touristry and educational services and ICT industries are common in the knowledge-based industries.

Fourth. as Malaysia strives to go a developed state by the twelvemonth 2020. this would ensue in its current border in bring forthing goods and services for the planetary market. which hinges on low rewards. to be eroded. This is because its cost degrees would near those of developed states. To confront this awaited intensifying labour cost. Malaysia needs to guarantee higher value is added to its merchandises in order for its industries to stay feasible. Therefore. for Malaya to be competitory. it must bring forth goods and services to vie at comparable degrees as those in developed states. Again. such high value-added is by and large provided by knowledge-based industries.

Fifth. Malaysia needs to travel into more profitable and wealth-generating phases of production. In other words. it has to do its fabrication sector more profitable. To make so. Malayan houses have small pick but to travel into the pre- production phase ( which includes merchandise conceptualisation. research and design. prototyping etc ) and/or post-production phase ( packaging. stigmatization. selling. retailing etc ) of fabrication. because there is less net income to be made from the nucleus production procedure. These pre- and post-production phases besides happen to be more knowledge-intensive compared to the bing nucleus production procedure phase.

Sixth. Malaysia needs to happen new beginnings of growing in its economic system as the old beginnings of growing have become less productive. A knowledge-based economic system will supply some of these new beginnings of growing to enable Malaysia to prolong growing and dynamism. Finally. Malaysia needs to better the part of the “total factor productivity” ( TFP ) in footings of bettering the quality of workers. methods of making things and other bringing activities ( EPU. 2002: 5 ) .

To what widen do Malaysia able to develop ain cognition worker?

Education:

At the primary and secondary degrees. some of the indexs for quality that tend to raise concerns hold to make with the learning profession. the course of study. and the scaling of schools. The most serious concern is that of instructor enlisting. salary. calling way. work burden and preparation. These concerns have discouraged many potentially good instructors from fall ining the profession. As respects the school course of study. there are two sets of issues. The first has to make with content. The 2nd set of issues trades with execution of the course of study. schoolroom size. expertness of instructors and courseware development. Overcrowding in urban schools can hinder instruction and acquisition. including the effectual bringing of the course of study. At the third degree. concerns centre chiefly on the issues of research. resources. module makings. and the quality of end product. Some public establishments are non lament on being assessed and ranked by an external organic structure. Consequently these establishments become less cognizant of their failings. This deficiency of consciousness about their public presentation does non lend to answerability.

The public requires elaborate information on the public presentation of assorted establishments in order to hold assurance in them. In footings of the usage of ICT. the largest supplier for programmes in schools is the authorities. chiefly the Ministry of Education ( MOE ) . MIMOS. MDC and the private sector. including parent-teacher associations. are besides involved. Some observations are made on the current tendencies and development of the ICT programmes in schools: ? At this phase. ICT programmes at the school degree are still to a great extent centered on substructure or procurance of hardware. Software ( content development for courseware ) and people ware ( developing ) in the ICT programmes are more pressing. The hardware focal point entirely is unequal to make the environment for e-education which can heighten instruction and acquisition and suit life-long acquisition. The package and people ware facets that are necessary for e-education have to be considered and expanded.

? There is a deficiency of co-ordination among the assorted bureaus. viz. MOE. MIMOS and MDC. in their supporting activities for the ICT programmes. Redundancy and wastage of resources can be avoided if there is better co-ordination. ? In many schools. computing machines are frequently locked up in a particular room or a lab. hindering their usage for learning and larning. The category time-table frequently does non include clip for working or playing with computing machines. The dearly-won equipment forces instructors in charge of the room to be cautious in leting entree. and this adds to the trouble in using the computing machines.

? Most instructors have non had sufficient preparation to maximise the usage of computing machines to heighten instruction and acquisition. and frequently simply impose traditional methods of boring and rote larning utilizing computing machines. This is chiefly due to the accent on ICT literacy in instructor preparation programmes. ? Due to the deficiency of a standard attack in the use of computing machines. pupil contact hours with computing machines can non be established. ? Teachers take charge of ICT centres in schools on a voluntary footing. Most of them do non hold any formal preparation in ICT. There is frequently no technician who can help the instructors with care.

Public higher instruction establishments. particularly the universities. have been spread outing their ICT programmes. particularly over the past five old ages. Computer labs at the module degree and computing machine centres for the university have been initiated and are in advancement. ICT’s capacity to lend to greater efficiency of work and resource direction has non been to the full exploited. E-mail installations are non being maximized. and downloading talk notes from the web or interacting with lectors via electronic mail or the web is still uncommon. The Internet is non being adequately accessed for talk content. Another issue necessitating attending is the demand to develop quality private instruction. Private instruction in Malaysia is a comparatively developed sector. peculiarly at the higher instruction degree.

As respects proficient instruction. the system at the upper secondary degree demands to turn to a figure of issues: ? Greater attempts should be made to better hands-on accomplishments among proficient school pupils. The Technical Education Department has already introduced the contextual acquisition bringing system. which basically recognizes that larning is a complex and multi-faceted procedure. Such acquisition goes far beyond theory. drill-oriented. stimulation and response instruction methodological analysiss.

It was introduced in Secondary Technical Schools in 1998 to assist all pupils master higher-level academic and work accomplishments. Instruction based on this scheme is being structured to assist pupils use their cognition more efficaciously. ? Greater attempts are required to better the links between schools and industry. Presently the School Advisory Committees. established in all schools. comprise representatives from industries. higher instruction. Parent-Teacher Associations and Head Teachers who advise schools on course of study and equipment. The Career Guidance. Industrial Liaison and Placement Unit in every school besides provide career counsel and arrangement of pupils in industries. These should be farther improved.

B. Skills Training and Retraining

Malaysia presently has several drawbacks with respects to the instruction and accomplishments profile required for a K-based economic system. It lacks an equal pool of cognition workers. sufficiently high registration in the scientific disciplines at third degrees. and a wide base of workers with minimal literacy. larning ability and accomplishments. Educational reform takes clip while the enlisting of foreign endowment is simply a impermanent step. An effectual response would be to develop directors and workers to get by with the new demands of the K-based economic system. Private and public sector directors need to be trained to reengineer their organisations into ‘learning organizations’ which can pull. retain and develop K-workers to do their organisations more competitory. service-oriented and efficient.

To increase the quality and relevancy of accomplishments. greater liberty and flexibleness should be given to public sector preparation establishments to do them more antiphonal to the quickly altering labour market demands of a K-based economic system. To minimise occupation disruption ensuing from the passage to the K-based economic system. ‘bridging’ classs need to be organized for displaced workers. particularly those who are old. uneducated. and un-trainable. The power of the Internet should besides be harnessed to set up ‘net communities’ for citizens with particular demands and involvements to interact among them and with the authorities.

For the economic system as a whole. there is besides a demand for an efficient and rapid labour market information system to assist guarantee effectual planning to run into the manpower demands of the K-based economic system. This may necessitate the constitution of a specializer survey group. improved calling guidance. and a directory of preparation establishments. In add-on to supplying basic instruction for all. in a K-based economic system it is indispensable to emphasize Lifelong Learning and Education to assist citizens get by with spread outing cognition and rapid alteration. The challenges of Lifelong Learning and Education in the context of the K-based economic system include the followers:

1. Producing a extremely skilled. knowledge-rich work force.
2. Reducing unemployment and re-skilling the work force.
3. Addressing and seting to the demands of an aging society.

C. Global Endowment

A universe deficit of high degree work force is likely to increase the encephalon drain from Malaysia. While the high growing East Asiatic economic systems compete for Malayan endowment. peculiarly in ICT the more serious long-run rivals are the advanced K-based economic systems of the US and Europe which suffer serious deficits of ICT forces. It is estimated that Europe and the US entirely need two million more ICT workers by 2002. Recent alterations to immigration Torahs enacted to pull foreign endowment to the US have serious deductions for Asia and for Malaysia’s attempts to retain domestic endowment and attract foreign. peculiarly ICT endowment. A Bill passed by US Congress in late 2000 allows US houses to enroll 600. 000 aliens. a 3rd of them from India. The three-year programme takes consequence from 2001. The US enlisting thrust occurs in the context of a global deficit of ICT endowment. with Asiatic states excessively unable to run into their domestic demand. Despite this the best and brightest Asians ( including Malaysians ) . are likely to be lured by better rewards. work conditions. occupational mobility and the quality of life in the US and Europe.

This ‘brain drain’ has already begun. with European and US recruiters scouring Asiatic universities for endowment. This state of affairs signals several dangers for Malaysia. First. like the Asiatic states. Malaysia excessively is likely to lose immature alumnuss from local and foreign universities to houses in the US and Europe. Second. experient Malaysians may besides be recruited. with the Malayan labour market functioning as a ‘training ground’ for developed K-based economic systems. Third. since the Asiatic deficit and US demand will consume the international endowment pool. Malaysia’s option of using foreign endowment will be limited. Foreigners who are recruited to work in Malaysia are besides likely to handle Malaysia as a ‘training ground’ for eventual entry and colony in the US and Europe.

There are several ways Malaysia can get by with this state of affairs: ? One current advantage Malaysia has is that except for Singapore. other states in the part including Hong Kong. Indonesia. Thailand. and China. all of which besides have ambitious ICT programs. have non moved fast adequate to enroll foreign endowment. Traveling rapidly to simplify in-migration regulations and ease enlisting of foreign endowment will give Malaysia a competitory border in enlisting. ? Second. of all states in the part. Malaya likely has the most balanced set of attractive forces in footings of rewards. low costs. quality of life. stableness and safety. This advantage should be exploited to the fullest. ? Third. Malaysia’s rich and tolerant multiethnic heritage makes it attractive to a broad spectrum of exiles. whether Caucasians. Middle-Easterners. East Asians or South Asians. Unlike its rivals in the part. Malaya can therefore relieve the job of the global deficit by enrolling from a broad assortment of states and labour markets.

The authorities itself has made several clear attempts to enroll foreign endowment. In 1995-98 the Returning Scientists Programme managed by the Ministry of Science attracted 93 overseas-based foreign and Malayan scientists on short-run contracts to local establishments. But their high rewards posed a fiscal strain and contributed to pay unfairnesss vis-a-vis local scientists.

Acknowledging the demand for endowment. the Returning Scientists Programme was revived in early 2001. and the recent national Budget provided inducements to promote Malayan experts abroad ‘who have the needed expertise’ to return and function the state. Income remitted within two old ages from the day of the month of reaching will be exempted from income revenue enhancement. Two autos registered in the state of beginning for at least six months will besides be exempted from import responsibility and gross revenues revenue enhancement. while the husbands/wives and kids of Malayan citizens will now be given PR position within six months of the day of the month of reaching. Previously. hubbies who were non-citizens were non entitled to PR position. while non-citizen married womans could merely use for PR after five old ages abode in Malaysia.

The programme took consequence from 1 January 2001. Under this programme. six Fieldss of expertness and accomplishments have been identified. i. e. IT. Science and Technology. Industry. Finance and Accounting. Humanistic disciplines. and Medicine and Health.