Penang eyes expanding its digital talents empowerment programme to Kedah, Perak

GEORGE TOWN – Penang plans to expand its highly successful digital talents empowerment programme to youth in neighbouring Kedah and Perak after it managed to produce close to 1,000 young e-entrepreneurs in less than 12 months.

The state government through its Penang Youth Development Corporation (PYDC) is now engaging vocational colleges, associations, and organisations in Kedah and Perak to allow their youngsters to enrol in the programme.

The training programme is a part of Penang’s Young Excellence Awards initiative where those between 18 and 35 years of age are invited to attend a specific training modular to pick up the necessary skills for cyberspace.

To make things even more enticing for people looking to improve their digital marketing skills, the programme is free for students while working adults only need to pay a registration fee of RM200 for administrative purposes.

PYDC general manager Dr Gwee Sai Ling said that participants are given the opportunity to gain insights into e-commerce and can obtain the know-how of how to become more visible on YouTube and other social media platforms – akin to many influencers of the current generation.

The initiative, which is her baby, came to life with the support of technopreneur Henry Tye who heads Big Domain Sdn Bhd as its chief executive officer.

“The pilot programme nurtures the participants to eventually become mentors themselves so more peers and associates can benefit from it,” said Gwee.

State Youth and Sports exco Soon Lip Chee told The Vibes that Penang has the capacity to help youth in neighbouring states to upskill their presence online.

He said that George Town drew inspiration from the need to accelerate its online presence after Covid-19 ruined conventional ways of conducting business.

Now, he said, ride-sharing services for food and groceries are the norm; there is e-banking and almost all transactions related to the local government can be done digitally.

Soon also hopes that a digitally skilled young generation can coach their parents and senior citizens to cope with the fast-evolving digital economy.

He added that he was impressed with Gwee’s initiative that he now wants PYDC to produce another 1,000 group of e-entrepreneurs by next year.

“We will then have 2,000 highly skilled digital talents to power our digital economy forward,” said Soon.

He also hopes that Penang will be able to persuade the Malay and Indian communities to send their youth for the programme, as it is apolitical with the utmost objective to help the young weather online challenges.

“We are also reaching out to all institutions of higher learning, both public and private, as we believe we can complement the needs of their students in upskilling.”

The inaugural winners of the digital talent awards are: Poh Choo Han, Tay Wan Nee, Chuah Khai Win, Oh Zi Jian, Teh Mei Sin, Tian Chia Yee, Lee Khoon Hong, and Ooi Si Sheng.

The group then related their lessons on web building, e-commerce and other marketing skills, allowing them to take advantage of digital and social media platforms. – The Vibes, January 22, 2022