By Ling Hui
KUCHING, Sept 15: One of Sarawak government’s initiatives to nurture digital-savvy and industry-ready talents among graduates, the Graduate Enhancement Training Sarawak (GETS) 4.0 Program, has seen 20 per cent of its 214 interns offered jobs in the State.
Highlighting the increasing effectiveness of the programme, Sarawak State Secretary Datuk Amar Jaul Samion said between 2019 and 2021, another six per cent of about 65 GETS’ interns were employed by the companies they were attached to.
“This means that the main objective of this programme is being achieved,” he said.
GETS 4.0 is a 12-month on-the-job training programme where graduates will be attached to selected agencies among GETS partner companies based on their educational background.
First launched in March 2016, the programme was an initiative undertaken by the Sarawak government to help unemployed graduates prepare for various job industries with real-time training.
GETS lasted for two years until 2018 with a total of 109 interns later absorbed by GETS partner companies.
Following the introduction of the Sarawak Digital Economy Strategy (2019-2022) by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg in 2018, GETS was later rebranded into GETS 4.0 where the focus was to build, develop and headhunt a workforce that is agile and tech-savvy.
Jaul Samion said in the first 2019 iteration of the programme, a total of 535 applications were received from both Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and non-STEM backgrounds where 321 applicants had passed and were attached to government agencies, government-linked companies (GLCs) and the private sector.
Cohort 2, he added, commenced in 2020 and Cohort 3 in 2021 with 301 and 437 interns respectively with the majority in Kuching, but there are a number of these interns were allocated to Resident Offices in every division and the Digital Community Centres in rural areas.
“GETS 4.0 has continued to receive strong interest and demand from both public and private agencies. Over three years, we have received more than 5,000 applications from graduates of STEM and non-STEM background throughout Sarawak.
“More opportunities will be offered to graduates to join GETS 4.0 program for next cohort (Year 2021/2022) to allow for more unemployed graduates to benefit,” he said during the launch of GETS 4.0 via Zoom today.
Also present for the virtual launching ceremony were Abang Johari, Sarawak Deputy State Secretary Datu Dr Sabariah Putit, Sarawak Centre of Performance Excellence (Scope) chief executive officer (CEO) Dr Asleena Dato Helmi, and Leadership Institute of Sarawak Civil Service CEO Ismail Said. — DayakDaily
