SHAH ALAM, 9 Apr: The State Government is taking a proactive measure in planning and intensifying efforts to create more employment opportunities, especially for the young, women and single mothers.
The Executive Councillor in charge of Education, Higher Learning and Human Capital Development, Dr Halimah Ali, said that for women and single mothers, the state government, through the women’s standing committee, has already implemented several programmes, among them being the Selangor Microcredit Programme (Skimsel) and the Urban Poor Microcredit (MiMBAR) scheme.
She said that other plans have also been carried out, among them through cooperation with the Selangor State Investment Centre (SSIC), to create employment opportunities.
This is through the organisation of promotion programmes and participating in commerce exhibitions with the aim of attracting more investors locally and abroad.
“In 2013, this effort successfully created 14,699 employment opportunities in Selangor, which is an increase compared to 2012.
“The main objective of the Selangor State Government is to ensure that each family earns at least RM3,000, either employed by an employer or we create skills for them to work alone, especially women and single mothers who find it difficult to leave their children to caretakers,” she said.
She was responding to a question by Tiew Way Keng (DAP-Teratai) regarding employment opportunities for the people of Selangor during the Selangor State Assembly (DNS) session today.
In the meantime, Halimah said that the Jom Kerja (Let’s Work) programme in the shape of a carnival, which began in 2009, has also received overwhelming response with the participation of 7,993 applications to date.
She said that the programme also gives advice to the young people to find suitable employment based on their qualifications.
“We have also organised special career programmes for the youth and single mothers by exposing business opportunities that can be pursued, as well as information of financial aid.
“This includes basic entrepreneurship, marketing, financing and business under the Merakyatkan Ekonomi Selangor (MES) agenda,” she added.