THE hum of conversation at the ASEAN Green Skills Fair 2025 in Putrajaya was more than the usual job-hunting chatter.
For Malaysia, hosting the event as ASEAN chair was about signalling a shift — that the future of work in the region will be defined as much by sustainability as by technology.
TalentCorp group CEO Thomas Mathew stated that the three forces shaping tomorrow’s workforce are artificial intelligence (AI), digitalisation and the green economy — and green skills can no longer be ignored.
“Through our study, over the first 10 sectors, close to 949 total roles — each of those roles requires some form of green skills.
“The value chain is also affected if they cannot meet energy transition requirements. All of these things become very important,” he said.
ASEAN’s Green Agenda
As chair of ASEAN 2025, Malaysia has sought to place skills, jobs and innovation at the centre of regional cooperation under the theme “Inclusivity and Sustainability”.
The ASEAN Green Skills Fair 2025, held in Putrajaya, was designed as both a showcase and a working platform — a convergence of governments, industries, training providers and youth to answer one urgent question: How can the region equip its people for the green transition?
Human Resources Ministry (Kesuma) Secretary General Datuk Azman Mohd Yusof said Malaysia is addressing the skills challenge by linking apprenticeship and internship schemes directly with green industries.
“This is why Kesuma, through TalentCorp, has brought the ASEAN Green Skills Fair to life. It is a place where governments, industries, training providers and workers converge, and where the skills that will define ASEAN’s future are demonstrated — renewable energy (RE), sustainable design, eco-innovation, energy efficiency and waste management,” he said.
The fair also supported the establishment of the ASEAN Green Jobs Regional Centre of Excellence (AGJCOE), a hub to drive green investment, job creation and skills development across South-East Asia.
A Widening Demand-Supply Gap
Malaysia’s workforce analysis underscores the urgency of action. TalentCorp’s study found that while 11.6% of the workforce requires green skills, only 5.6% currently possess them.
The gap highlights the need for accelerated training, curriculum reform and public-private collaboration.
Meanwhile, the imbalance mirrors global trends. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) warns that by 2030, 60% of youth worldwide may lack the skills to participate in the green economy.
With ASEAN home to more than 200 million young people, the stakes are especially high. The region could either seize the opportunity to lead in sustainable industries or risk being sidelined by more agile competitors.
At the ASEAN Green Jobs Career Fair, the Social Security Organisation (Perkeso) demonstrated that opportunities are already materialising.
Head of Employment Insurance System Office Datuk Asri Ab Rahman reported that 5.1 million vacancies from green-related industries have been advertised on MyFutureJobs since 2020. Of these, 390,000 jobseekers have already been placed into green roles across manufacturing, construction, RE and waste management.
“The platform proves that the demand is here, the jobs are here, and the future is here — showcased here today.
“This career fair reflects the green economy we are building together, with 35 leading employers offering over 5,000 vacancies in high-skilled, high-growth sectors,” he said in his remarks at the launch.
Among those employers who exhibited at the fair were Airbus Malaysia, Worldline International and Gamuda Land, alongside companies in electric mobility, circular economy and energy efficiency. Salaries range from RM2,500 to RM12,000, signalling that green jobs are not only meaningful but also competitive.
Mathew stressed that interventions must begin early. TalentCorp has brought sustainability awareness into schools, starting from form three, through its “YES! Rock The School” programme. At the university level, TalentCorp explains to students how future careers and skill requirements are shifting.
“Actually, the generation today is very much more responsible. They want to know about their environment. They want to take responsibility in that area. So they are very interested to know — it is just that we need to educate them, we need to inform them,” he said.
This strategy of embedding awareness early aligns with the ILO’s projection that a decisive shift to a green economy could create 24 million new jobs globally by 2030.
Private Sector and Supply Chain Compliance
Concurrently, the demand for green skills is also driven by market forces. Companies face increasing pressure from lenders, investors and regulators to meet environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. Those who fail risk exclusion from contracts and financing.
This reality was echoed throughout the fireside chat sessions at the ASEAN Green Skills Fair, where multinational and regional players highlighted how technology and foresight are reshaping workforce needs.
At Siemens Energy AG, the focus was on how digitalisation, AI and cybersecurity are now central to managing the energy transition.
Tools such as AI-driven “digital twins” allow operators to optimise power generation and detect system anomalies across solar, wind, hydro and gas plants.
To support this, Siemens has been co-developing curricula with Malaysian universities, while offering training and internships through its Power Academy in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and its Cyber Security Operation Centre in Cyberjaya.
Many interns, the company noted, have transitioned into full-time roles, reflecting how industry-academia collaboration can directly close the green skills gap.
Furthermore, the call for deeper strategic foresight came from Invictus Leader, whose chief foresight and transformation strategist Mastura Mansor warned that ASEAN risks falling into a “comfortable illusion” if it continues to treat green skills as static.
She pointed out that while the region loses US$300 billion (RM1.27 trillion) annually to climate impacts, the green economy could unlock US$1 trillion in GDP by 2030, with Indonesia alone potentially generating 50 million new jobs.
Yet universities often take four to six years to update curricula, while technology evolves in less than two years. Without reform, graduates may be trained for jobs that no longer exist.
Mastura outlined three scenarios: A passive path where talent migrates abroad, an adaptive path where ASEAN remains trapped in the middle-income bracket and a pioneer path where the region becomes a global testbed for AI-powered sustainability.
The latter, she argued, requires cultivating “meta-skills” such as foresight, adaptability and critical thinking — not just technical knowhow.
Additionally, the corporate perspective was reinforced by PwC, which emphasised the interface of AI and green skills in creating a low-carbon economy.
For professional services firms, the demand lies not only in technical roles but also in finance, auditing and governance.
AI-enabled ESG reporting, carbon accounting and supply chain transparency are fast becoming essential, placing pressure on companies to hire or reskill staff who can navigate compliance frameworks while delivering business value.
Together, these insights reinforced a common message: ASEAN’s green transition cannot be achieved through technology alone. It requires a workforce trained to operate, innovate and critically adapt within industries that are themselves transforming at unprecedented speed.
Ground-level Engagement
The fair itself was designed as a living laboratory of green skills. Over three days, it drew 5,000 attendees, from students and job-seekers to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and training providers.
Exhibits included electric vehicles by Bermaz Auto Bhd, solar-powered hydroponics and community-driven sustainability projects.
A workshop led by Biji-Biji Initiative offered practical sessions on composting, edible gardening and upcycling, showing that green skills are not confined to boardrooms but extend to everyday practice.
The atmosphere was equal parts policy forum and carnival, underscoring that sustainability must be experienced as much as it is discussed.
For Nur Amirah Fatihah Norazmi, a computer science graduate from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), the fair offered a chance to test the waters after nearly a year of job searching.
“I was looking for work and suddenly saw the event on MyFutureJobs,” said Nur Amirah who is currently a protege at Mimos Bhd.
She admitted that while such events can be useful, scale matters.
“At Universiti Malaya (UM) (where MyFutureJobs did a roadshow previously), the booths were bigger and more happening. Here it’s smaller. Still, events like this should be continued and expanded across Malaysia,” she said to The Malaysian Reserve (TMR).
For her university course mates Siti Nurdanyizatul Ain Sahrizat Azam, now a helpdesk engineer at Advance Jupiter Sdn Bhd, and Siti Syarafana Saroni, a digital content creator with TheLorry Sdn Bhd, the fair was less about landing first jobs and more about exploring how sustainability connects with their existing roles.
Siti Nurdanyizatul Ain explained how her IT background and technical role often involve solving problems for clients in sectors like utilities.
Meanwhile, Siti Syarafana noted that the fair helped her see how even creative industries are being drawn into sustainability-driven shifts.
She had earlier taken part in the K-Youth programme, a Khazanah Nasional Bhd-backed youth employability scheme akin to a protege programme, where she gained exposure to sustainability-related skills during her training.
“We studied IT and design, so we also touched on coding, software development and even sustainability-related modules. Programmes like K-Youth helped me bridge that gap,” she said.
Towards a Regional Blueprint
ASEAN’s challenge is to harmonise efforts across diverse economies.
Each member state brings different strengths: Malaysia in energy transition; Vietnam in renewables; Indonesia in sustainable agriculture; Singapore in green finance.
The task will be to integrate these strengths into a coherent regional workforce blueprint. But as Mastura warned, the choices made now will determine whether ASEAN seizes its opportunity or falls behind.
She outlined three possible trajectories for the region’s workforce.
The passive path sees ASEAN talent undertrained and migrating abroad to Singapore or the Middle East in search of opportunities while the adaptive path allows the region to adopt existing technologies but leaves it trapped in the middle-income bracket, with no innovation edge.
Only the pioneer path, where ASEAN positions itself as a global testbed for AI-powered sustainability, can unlock the projected US$1 trillion in green GDP by 2030, creating tens of millions of new jobs.
This requires cultivating not just technical competencies but also meta-skills — foresight, adaptability and critical thinking — to help the workforce navigate industries that will be redefined every 18 months as technology evolves.
Nonetheless, Mathew noted that the ASEAN Green Skills Fair provides a step in that direction.
“Through this ASEAN Green Skills Fair, we are turning strategies into opportunities. Policymakers, employers, academics and youth are here to learn, to share and to build partnerships.
“As ASEAN chair, Malaysia shows that leadership means preparing not only for ourselves, but for the region as a whole,” he added.
This effort aligns with Malaysia’s National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) and its carbon neutrality target by 2050.
By embedding sustainability into workforce planning, Malaysia is positioning itself not only as a domestic reformer but also as a regional convener, helping ASEAN edge closer to the pioneer path.
For Mathew, the imperative remains clear: Every worker, regardless of industry, must understand green competencies as part of their role.
“This is why we want to actually improve this platform. Today we want to tell our students that green skills are very important.
“You can pick that up either as a career or at least understand it as part of your job. Going forward, this will be important,” he said.
Asri put it even more bluntly: “This carnival is more than an event; it is a catalyst. It is a partnership between government, industry and the workforce, all aligned towards a common goal.
“Together, let us ensure that ASEAN’s transition to a green economy is just, inclusive and filled with opportunities for all,” he said.
The ASEAN Green Skills Fair 2025 may be only a beginning, but it sends a decisive signal that the region’s green future will not be built by policy alone, but by people — the skills they acquire, the jobs they perform and the responsibility they take for a sustainable tomorrow.
Source: https://themalaysianreserve.com/2025/09/11/aseans-workforce-future-hinges-on-green-skills/