1st July 2026 - 2 min read
25,000 people are set to benefit from the Bakat Madani initiative over the next year, from mid-2026 through 2027, after its launch in Seremban on 29 June by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The programme brings together government-linked investment companies (GLICs), government-linked companies (GLCs), and Petronas to strengthen skills training, create jobs, and improve social mobility.
If you’re early in your job search, whether through a degree or a technical and vocational pathway, this is one of the groups the programme is built around.
Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan, who spoke at the launch, said the initiative rests on three areas. These are strengthening employability and career placement within the GLIC, GLC, and Petronas ecosystem, expanding job placements across strategic sectors, and empowering Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions. Priority is being given to sectors including semiconductors, renewable energy, the digital economy, and advanced manufacturing.
Several existing programmes are being restructured under the initiative. VISTA is being transformed into Vista i-Plus by Petronas, working with the Malaysia Petroleum Resources Corporation (MPRC) and the Malaysian Oil, Gas & Energy Services Council (MOGSC), to create an integrated TVET training model drawing on MARA, youth, and technical skills institutes.
Khazanah Nasional Berhad is working with 23 higher education institutions, including Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), and Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), on industrial training and technical certification.
Amir Hamzah said the government will introduce special tax incentives for companies that run training programmes under Bakat Madani, to encourage more industry involvement in skills development. He described the new incentive as an improvement on existing employability measures.
If you’re a TVET graduate, that scheme now extends to you as well. The minimum allowance paid to trainees during their placement has also been raised.
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Christina writes about personal finance with an eye for making the complicated feel straightforward. She is drawn to the everyday money decisions people face and genuinely enjoys finding the clearest way to explain them. Between articles, she is probably napping, on a hiking trail, or terrorising her sister’s cats.
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