PM Launches Key Initiatives To Enable JPA Scholars To Build Careers In GTP And ETP Priority Sectors

The Talent Acceleration in Public Service (TAPS) and the Scholarship Talent Attraction and Retention (STAR) programmes were developed to provide scholars with attractive opportunities to build their careers in priority areas of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) upon their graduation.

TAPS is a collaborative initiative led by the PSD with the Razak School of Government (RSOG) and Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp) to attract and nurture the best and brightest from amongst JPA scholars into the civil service.

Other scholars not selected for the public sector will participate in the STAR programme. This is a collaborative effort between the PSD and TalentCorp, which will enable PSD scholars to serve their bonds working in leading companies driving the ETP.

Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib also witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the PSD and TalentCorp to formalise their collaboration on STAR. The MoU was signed between Tan Sri Abu Bakar Haji Abdullah, Director-General of Public Service Malaysia and Johan Mahmood Merican, Chief Executive Officer of TalentCorp.

Earlier in his speech to more than 100 scholars, Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib invited them to work with the Government and private sector and become the agents of change towards realising Malaysia’s transformation plans.

“Malaysians who have been given the privilege and opportunity of a good education have the added collective responsibility to harness it for the benefit of others,” he advised the students who have recently graduated from some of the best universities in the world.

“We are pleased to collaborate closely with TalentCorp and the Razak School of Government in developing these initiatives, which are part of our larger efforts to transform the civil service into a career of choice and enable our scholars to play key roles in driving the country’s transformation,” said Tan Sri Abu Bakar.

Under TAPS, top scholars will be selected to work on high priority public policy issues and projects. To guide them, the scholars will be assigned senior civil servants as mentors and in addition, attend training at the RSOG. Scholars selected for TAPS will be initially appointed on a 2 year contract, following which high performers will be fast-tracked into the civil service.

The first pilot batch of the TAPS programme will involve 40 top scholars and commence in October 2011. The programme will subsequently be rolled out in stages to PSD scholars graduating from other institutions of higher learning in Malaysia and abroad.

Meanwhile, the STAR programme is a collaboration between the PSD and TalentCorp, whereby TalentCorp facilitates the engagement between PSD scholars and employers. This will be undertaken in conjunction with TalentCorp’s outreach to Malaysian students and professionals abroad.

The STAR programme has already attracted the participation of a diverse group of more than 50 employers such as Bank Negara Malaysia, Securities Commission Malaysia, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, CIMB Bank, Maxis, Intel, Shell Malaysia, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Teach For Malaysia.

For more information on TAPS and STAR, please refer to www.jpa.gov.my and www.star.talentcorp.com.my respectively.