Diaspora talent attraction and skills transfer in Malaysia
Since 2010, Malaysia has been increasingly investing in diaspora engagement in terms of talent attraction and skills transfer to address both its “brain drain” concerns and skills gaps in critical sectors. In 2011, Malaysia established TalentCorp to lead the country’s work to attract, nurture and retain talent. TalentCorp has since developed a number of programmes to engage the diaspora, including through its MyHeart platform and Returning Expert Programme.
With support from EUDiF, TalentCorp seeks to enhance its diaspora engagement and talent attraction activities. The CDL project, will support TalentCorp to learn from international and regional practices in the triumvirate of diaspora engagement, talent attraction and skills transfer.
Through benchmarking TalentCorp’s work against international best practices, fostering dialogue with peer institutions from Asia, and reviewing monitoring frameworks, the project will aid TalentCorp to make evidence-based strategic and programmatic improvements, whilst also enhancing regional cooperation and strengthening capacities in diaspora consultation monitoring.
Programme of activities
A comprehensive analysis of Malaysia's talent attraction and skills transfer programme, namely the Return Expatriate Programme, benchmarking it against international best practices. The exercise assessed Malaysia's programming via two intersecting frameworks: the diaspora engagement ecosystem, and the engagement funnel. The resulting study serves as a resource for programme implementation and strategic planning to enhance Malaysian diaspora engagement, including REP optimisation.
An in-person peer exchange in Kuala Lumpur brought representatives from Armenia, India, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines to facilitate peer learning on diaspora engagement frameworks, with a specific focus on talent attraction and skills transfer schemes.
Assessment of the monitoring, evaluation and learning capacities of TalentCorp's diaspora consultation and outreach activities and co-design of a MEL framework and tools adapted to TalentCorp's resources and institutional objectives.
An interactive online workshop with TalentCorp and its institutional partners to discuss the recommendations of the benchmarking with a view to prioritising and assigning follow-up activities. The workshop also included participants from Ernst & Young with whom TalentCorp is working with to build on the CDL project results and work towards a national diaspora engagement policy.