In its ambitions to become a Smart Selangor by 2025, the Selangor State Government has rolled out a multitude of plans that involve infrastructure to the all critical software, which in this case means talent upskilling.
It has taken a particular interest in ensuring the state’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and micro-enterprises (mSMEs) have the requisite skills to remain competitive and relevant in its fast changing digital economy.
Its most recent initiative is the workforce digitalisation programme to assist SMEs in Selangor to adopt Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0). For a minimal fee the programme, which is free for the first three months, offers features such as attendance recording and GPS monitoring, scheduling and roster management, temperature reports, contact tracing as well as reports and analytics.
Prior to that, in June, it launched the Selangor Advance financing scheme with a fund size of US$24.5 million (RM100 million) to assist SMEs, especially contractors and service providers in facing the Covid-19 economic challenges.
But possibly its most interesting programme is the Jelajah Usahawan Digital Selangor or Selangor Digital Entrepreneur Explorer that kicked off in Feb with the goal of taking the programme to each district in the state.
Organised by Invest Selangor and Selangor Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (SITEC), the state aims to upskill entrepreneurs, especially those in 2nd tier cities, with the requisite e-commerce and digitalisation skills they will need to compete and be successful in the digital economy.
As Selangor Menteri Besar, Amirudin Shari, said, “Doing business digitally is a key element which cannot be avoided by entrepreneurs today. As a result, entrepreneurs must digitalise their business to meet the demands and needs of society today which is increasingly shifting online.”
In keeping with its belief that outreach programmes are most effective when partnering with industry players, the state government has brought in experts from Avana, Boost, Google, Hijrah Selangor, BungkusIT, Nina Van, Shopee Malaysia and YouBeli to run the various sessions.
To help prepare them, Jelajah Usahawan Digital has already carried out three sessions in Bangi (the kick-off), Klang and Ampang.
Billed as the ideal platform to provide exposure, guidance and training to local entrepreneurs who wanted to gain new knowledge related to digital businesses, participants can expect to learn various lessons such as:
- The ins and outs of e-Commerce Marketplaces
- How to make Social Commerce work for them
- Differentiating between the many Payment & E-Wallets
- Understanding and applying Logistic & Delivery
- Learning the key points about Digital Marketing
- On-demand service (e-hailing)
The next series of informative sessions will be held on Dec 9, 10 and 17. In complying with the Conditional Movement Control Order, the event will be held virtually instead.
The virtual event will feature Charles Gregory, CEO of Digital Marketing Consultancy Sdn Bhd. As president of the Digital Marketing Association of Malaysia, he has developed over 20 digital marketing courses and is also a multiple award winner, having received the SME100 and SOBA awards.
In the upcoming sessions, Gregory will speak about Generating Leads Using Google, Facebook Marketing and Live Commerce. A free consultation will be provided afterwards.
The 4 in 1 course is limited to 100 people and RM200 in registration fees.
Besides upskilling its SMEs and micro SMEs and exposing the local communities to digitization, organizing the Jelajah Usahawan Digital in each district in Selangor also affords SITEC’s partners the opportunity to reach new merchants in different parts of Selangor.
At the same time strong relationships can be formed between the local community, state government and industry players.
SITEC in particular uses the opportunity from such on-ground engagements to introduce its various digital programmes to participants as well in the hopes of attracting more entrepreneurs and community members to benefit from them.
From June 2015 to 2020, SITEC has organised more than 93 e-commerce classes and training to help Selangor entrepreneurs to convert their traditional business to online. Moreover, SITEC has also successfully trained more than 550 entrepreneurs in Selangor through its Online 100 and Apps 100 programmes where participants get to learn how to market their products on Lazada, Shopee and youbeli.com.
Source: https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/digital-economy/jelajah-usahawan-digital-selangor-reaches-out-upskill-small-businesses