Meanwhile, a total of 16 employers served as vendors at the career carnival for PWDs, offering a total of 2,000 job opportunities
by AZALEA AZUAR / pic by MUHD AMIN NAHARUL
THE government has agreed to allow Thaipusam processions to proceed next month, but with some standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri M Saravanan said the government has agreed to hold the festival on Jan 18 as it is a religious event.
“The government and the National Security Council (NSC) has agreed to hold the Thaipusam festival as well as the movement of the procession, but we have already set some recommendations to ensure we control the spread of the Covid-19 virus,” he spoke during a press conference after officiating the opening ceremony of the “Career Carnival for People with Disabilities (PWD)” in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Saravanan said the decision was made after several discussions between him and the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Communications and Multimedia, the National Unity Minister Datuk Halimah Mohamed Sadique, Cabinet ministers and NSC chaired by Senior Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.
The details for the processions will be defined in the next meeting.
Meanwhile, the career carnival was organised by the Social Security Organisation (Socso) through its Kuala Lumpur (KL) headquarters and was held in conjunction with World PWD Day with the theme “The PWD’s Participation and Leadership towards the Covid-19 Endemic”.
The single-day event yesterday was held at the World Trade Centre KL and included activities such as career counselling, assistance to register for the National Employment Portal and open interview sessions.
A total of 16 employers such as Padini Holding Bhd, HDTEC Energy Sdn Bhd, FMJ Synergy Sdn Bhd, Lulu Group Retail Sdn Bhd and Teleperformance Malaysia Sdn Bhd served as vendors and offered a total of 2,000 job opportunities.
The carnival is aimed to ensure that PWDs have equal opportunities to contribute to the national economy and it is also in line with Malaysia’s Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 which implements structuring the economy, addressing inequality and nation building.
The career carnival hoped to attract 500 entries from different disabilities such as learning, hearing, speech and physical, supported by the Malaysian Federation of the Deaf, the Malaysian Association of the Handicapped, the Malaysian Dyslexia Association and the Disabled Club.
In his speech, Socso CEO Datuk Seri Dr Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohammed said a fair number of PWD job seekers were at the carnival since it opened at 9am and 25 of them successfully achieved job placements.
“For 2021 alone, a total of 267,203 job seekers have managed to get jobs through the National Employment Portal, MYFutureJobs and job placement programmes implemented by the Ministry of Human Resources through the Socso Employment Insurance System Office,” he said.
KyoChon Malaysia hiring manager (HR) Monie Nasry believed that the carnival was beneficial to PWDs because they have the chance to work with those from the food and beverage (F&B) industry, mostly as kitchen crew members.
“Mostly, those who have visited our booth have met our requirements, which are hearing and speaking disabilities.
“Unfortunately, it is difficult to hire those with physical disabilities since the nature of the F&B job requires the use of hands and legs,” she told The Malaysian Reserve.
Monie said they also hire those with learning disabilities as they only need to do tasks such as repacking, marinating and washing the raw materials.