KUCHING: Sarawak will be relying greatly on the competency and capability of local skilled workforce for future projects that utilise the state’s many natural resources.

Second Minister of Planning and Resource Management Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan said towards this end the government had set up a Cabinet Committee tasked with planning skills training in accordance with the needs of industrial demands.

According to him, as the state is rich in natural resources, it is important for Sarawak to have sufficient number of skilled manpower of its own for present and future projects utilising these resources especially in the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).

“To raise the state’s development to another level and to benefit from our own resources, this would depend greatly on the quality and quantity of our own human capital,” he said.

Tengah, who is also Minister of Public Utilities, mentioned this at the 11th convocation ceremony for Sarawak Skills Development Centre (PPKS) and International College of Advanced Technology Sarawak (ICATS), at DUN complex banquet hall yesterday.

He stressed that a well-planned human resource strategy had always been the state government’s priority so that skills training programmes would suit industrial needs and also to prevent ‘training mismatch’.

“The government will continue to make investments in high tech industries with the aim of transforming the economy of the state for the future. The opening of these high tech industries will require the filling up of technology and engineering-based jobs.

“There would also be 1.6 million job opportunities available when SCORE is fully completed by 2030. Thus, it is important that we have enough manpower skilled in technical fields to fill these jobs,” he said.

On PPKS and ICATS, he was happy that both institutions of learning had modelled their training on industrial driven concept, thus giving their students hands-on learning and training.

Meanwhile, PPKS chairman and ICATS president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Abdul Aziz Husain announced that a new curriculum was being devised together with Rio Tinto and Cahya Mata Sarawak to train manpower for the incoming Aluminium Smelter Plan in Samalaju, Bintulu.

“The first intake of trainees will take place in early 2010,” he said, adding that both institutions would play their part in training skilled manpower for SCORE.

He also revealed that PPKS would also set up a new campus in Mukah soon, which would offer courses suited to industrial needs in that area such as welding, civil engineering and marine engineering.

Yesterday, a total 624 graduates received their certificates and diplomas. It also saw the debut of industrial awards sponsored by Yayasan Sarawak, Ministry of Industrial Development and the private sector to reward the best students. Among those sponsoring the awards were Shell, Petronas, Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation, Brooke Dockyard and Sarawak Energy.