KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — The Malaysian Skills Certification Programme in the field of solid waste management and public cleansing has been enhancing the image of workers in this industry.
Deputy Local Government Development Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said the programme, under the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp), was also aimed at producing skilled workers and also opening job opportunities in the sector.
“This programme started in 2019, the first group involved a total of 591 people sent by the concession companies and the feedback was a better quality of workers.
“Therefore we are expanding this programme at the university level as well as among prison inmates. We are targeting a total of 300 inmates from 17 prisons to follow this programme through the ‘Sinar di Sebalik Tirai Besi’ initiative which will generate job opportunities for them as soon as they finish serving their sentences,” he told Bernama.
Commenting further, Akmal Nasrullah said the ‘Sinar di Sebalik Tirai Besi’ programme would be launched on June 22 at the Sungai Udang Prison in Melaka which is symbolic of the strategic cooperation between SWCorp and the Malaysian Prisons Department.
“This skills certification programme will be carried out for eight months from June 1 until Jan 31 next year with an incentive of RM500 per month throughout the course,” he said.
Meanwhile, Akmal Nasrullah said various programmes had been planned for the Garbage Man Day 2023, which is celebrated on June 17 every year, to honor the hard work and dedication of workers in this sector.
“Celebrations will be held in Kedah, Perlis, Federal Territories (Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur), Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor which adopted the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act 2007 (Act 672),” he said.
Akmal Nasrullah said as of April this year, there were 27,465 workers in solid waste management and cleaning services, and of that number, 20,339 were locals while the rest were foreigners.
“There is an increase in the number of workers this year compared to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, namely about 25,000 workers and this may be due to the increase in population and so on.
“Therefore, our current challenge is to attract more local people to join the industry which is categorised as 3D jobs, namely difficult, dangerous and dirty,” he said.
Akmal Nasrullah said other challenges were to manage solid waste well and to educate the community in waste separation.
“The most basic thing that needs to be emphasised is how to reduce solid waste and then how to separate garbage according to categories because no waste separation will lead to high solid waste management costs and also pollution.
“The role played by SWCorp is indeed challenging because if we only look at it in terms of enforcement and implementation alone it is not enough but community awareness also needs to go hand in hand, because of that we also hold the Trash to Cash programme to reduce waste and also helping the community generate additional income through recycling,” he said.
