KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced an increase in the allocation for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to RM7.8 billion compared to RM6.8 billion previously.

Anwar said priority was given to increasing cooperation with industry, providing training opportunities for vulnerable youth including from the urban poor, marginalised, rural and Orang Asli groups.

In addition, he said, TVET education and training opportunities will be enhanced through the overall allocation of RM1.2 billion to vocational colleges and technical secondary schools that provide education to 77,000 students.

“PTPK (Skills Development Fund Corporation) provides funding of up to RM500 million for the benefit of over 20,000 trainees including RM100 million specifically for New Industrial Master Plan (NIMP) priority areas such as MRO (maintenance, repair and modification), EV (electric vehicles), aerospace, and AI (artificial intelligence),” he said.

Anwar said this when tabling Budget 2025 in Dewan Rakyat today.

In addition, the Prime Minister announced that HRDCorp will utilise RM3 billion to offer three million training opportunities.

“Khazanah Nasional Berhad provided RM200 million through the Khazanah Youth Development Programme (K-Youth) to supply 11,000 local talents to key sectors such as semiconductors.

“GiatMARA and community colleges are provided RM55 million to give 10,000 huffaz children from tahfiz and pondok institutions with skills training within five years.GiatMARA will also provide short-term training to more than 3,000 gig workers,“ he said.

In addition, Anwar said the government proposed a double deduction on the expenses of companies implementing the Structured Training Program (MySIP) under Talent Corp to be extended to students who attended structured training by the industry regulatory body and extended until the assessment year 2030.

Meanwhile, he said the Social Security Organisation (Socso) will build a state-of-the-art Rehabilitation Centre in Terengganu at a cost of almost RM600 million.