KUCHING: Sarawak’s upcoming Special Needs Community Centre (SNCC) will include a dedicated job-matching service for persons with disabilities as the state looks to strengthen a federal employment quota it says remains insufficient.
Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said the service would tie into the Social Welfare Department’s (JKM) existing focus under its Persons with Disabilities Division.
“It is still not enough because it is a very slow process. Not every employer wants to take children with special needs so we have to knock on their doors,” she said, speaking at the opening of Estella Child Development Centre here today (Sept 15), referring to the federal government’s 1% employment quota for persons with disabilities.
She said the ministry actively approaches employers on behalf of tertiary-qualified graduates with disabilities, submitting their profiles directly to request interviews and consideration for employment.
Job matching will form part of the broader SNCC, funded partly through RM30 million approved under the 13th Malaysia Plan for its first phase, alongside early intervention, rehabilitation, skills development and vocational training components.
Fatimah said a residential care component, planned for the centre’s second phase, would fill a gap in Sarawak, noting that such facilities currently exist only in Peninsular Malaysia.
“We do not want any of our Sarawakians, especially individuals with special needs, to have nowhere to go.”
