Student council urges more support for youth jobs
UKEC chairperson Vincent Tang said the council presented findings from its Malaysian Student Leaders' Economic Outlook and Workforce Readiness Survey during a courtesy visit to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The survey highlighted gaps in the nation's innovation and employment landscape, which included a lack of start-up opportunities and a weak entrepreneurial ecosystem for young people.
Tang said he had highlighted two key avenues to address brain drain: employment and entrepreneurship.
He said UKEC had made "substantial progress" in employment initiatives, including the Malaysian Career Fair in London.
The annual event attracts more than 4,700 students and over 20 Malaysian employers, effectively bridging talent with opportunities in Malaysia.
While employment initiatives were well-established, there was still no strong support to help students turn their ideas into viable start-ups, Tang said.
To address this, the council proposed UKECipta, an initiative to empower student innovation through targeted financial backing and mentorship.
The programme would also leverage UKEC's UK base to attract foreign venture capital.
Tang said the Prime Minister suggested UKEC coordinate with the Human Resources Ministry, particularly TalentCorp and HRDCorp, to streamline existing initiatives and provide recommendations to better support innovative ideas.
The delegation also introduced UKEC's in-house policy centre, CICERO, which Tang said was aimed at strengthening youth-led policy research and advocacy.
Tang said the centre, which represents Malaysian youth opinions and ideas, aims to propose policies to the federal government.
He said Anwar and the Higher Education Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir were "open to listening to these policy recommendations."
He said the council was working closely with the Higher Education Ministry on numerous roundtable discussions with different agencies.
Anwar, in a Facebook post, said UKEC had shared ideas on addressing Malaysia's brain drain during the courtesy call.
He said the meeting also saw UKEC propose opportunities for more strategic collaboration between the federal government and the council through the Higher Education Ministry, covering various fields within existing policies.
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