In his speech during Hari Belia Negara 2021, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that Malaysian youth have not been left out of Budget 2022 and that they would benefit from 25 initiatives across different ministries and agencies.

Among these are JaminKerja, an initiative to guarantee 600,000 job opportunities as well as 80,000 contracts under MyStep to provide job opportunities for school leavers and varsity graduates by the government and Government-Linked Companies.

Another initiative by the government is Perantis. Perantis encourages employers to hire fresh graduates and school leavers aged between 18 and 30 by offering RM900 per month which is an increase of RM100.

Datuk Ismail Sabri said that in March next year the Youth Development Model 2030 would be launched in an effort to develop the younger generation in producing Masyarakat 5.0.

Masyarakat 5.0 refers to a society that is empowered physically and virtually through digitalisation in keeping with the trend that this is now the Digital Age.

He said to address the issue of Mental Health among youth, the Mental Health Matters campaign aimed to train about 1,000 young counselors through the Rakan Muda Comfort Room.

The program, which is in collaboration with non-governmental organizations, provides various platforms for emotional services and intervention to those in need.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE