PUTRAJAYA: A total of RM11.8bil has been disbursed under the first round of the Wage Subsidy Scheme, says Datuk Seri M. Saravanan.
The Human Resources Minister said that this was from the over RM13bil allocated for the initiative.
“The remaining funds have yet to be disbursed due to certain constraints such as verifying the authenticity of applications and falsification of documents.
“There are also applicants who did not complete the forms, such as providing their bank details,” he said.
He said the RM11.8bil combined with the additional RM2.4bil injection for the Wage Subsidy Scheme will be able to reduce the rate of unemployment.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had announced a further RM2.4bil allocation last week for the scheme as part of the Kita Prihatin special assistance package.
Saravanan said this at a press conference on Monday (Sept 28), after an appreciation ceremony for new graduates of the Train-the-Trainer (TTT) certification course by the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF).
At the ceremony, two media personalities, Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai and Wong Chui Ling, were among those named as outstanding trainers by the Human Resources Ministry.
Wong, who is Star Media Group advisor, is a regular speaker at local and international conferences.
The veteran journalist with 36 years of media experience continues to write and recently launched his social media journalism platform.
“Attending the TTT class came to my mind during the movement control order (MCO) period.
“Like most people, I was restless, and after following too many webinars, I decided to sign up for a TTT course to learn how to plan and structure my thoughts in a more organised way.
“I may have the media experience, but I wanted to learn how I can share my knowledge in a more organised and effective manner, ” he said.
Chun Wai said speaking skills have become more important as he has used social media increasingly now.
He was presented the certificate of excellence by Saravanan.
Chui Ling is a radio and TV personality, a columnist as well as an entrepreneur.
The Hong Kong-born trainer specialises in post-natal classes.
Chui Ling, who is married to a Malaysian businessman, decided to set up the academy after giving birth. She also runs media courses.
The two received their training from Rita Krishnan from Impian Helang Sdn Bhd.
At the ceremony, Rita was presented a letter of appointment to be an official vendor for the TTT certification course.
Also present at the ceremony were HRDF chairman Datuk Nelson Renganathan and chief executive Shahul Hameed Dawood.
Nelson explained that HRDF’s TTT is a certification course that educates participants in the five basic competencies required of a professional trainer.
“The training programme has been conducted since 1996 based on the Australian syllabus.
“Last year, there was a review undertaken to ensure the relevance of the current requirements of the training market.
“This resulted in an updated and more standardised TTT syllabus and this is the first batch of students who graduated as trainers based on this revised syllabus,” he said. The Star