Childcare
Penang State Government have setup and entrusted PWDC to manage Taska D’ KOMTAR, Pusat Jagaan Kanak-Kanak (PJKK) Daerah Timur Laut and Pusat Jagaan Kanak-Kanak (PJKK) Daerah Seberang Perai Tengah. This initiative provides affordable and accessible childcare for working parents in Penang, which is in line with the Penang Childcare Policy & Action Plan adopted and implemented in March 2013.
The policy aims to:
- Promote children’s well-being and safety through better access to quality and affordable childcare.
- Increase women’s participation in the workforce
- Promote a better work-family life balance.
Policy and Leaflet
Policy (English): Click here
Policy (Bahasa Malaysia): Click here
Leaflet: Click here
An industry dialogue “Childcare@Workplace: A Business Imperative?” was held on September 30th, 2019.
According to the Malaysian Department of Statistic’s report in 2018, the labour participation rate for women is 56.9%, which places Malaysia the third lowest in ASEAN countries. The reasons cited are to raise a family (65%), lack of work-life balance (43%), to care for a family member (38%), childcare is too expensive (35%) and lack of support facilities for women from employer (34%).
Contrary to popular belief, childcare facilities do more gain than harm for both employers and employees in the long run. The Harvard Business Review revealed that companies that adopted work-life practices including childcare services can result in productivity increases up to 2.25 times. A survey from Bright Horizons also found that 23% of parents turned down a job change offer or refrained from pursuing employment options due to the benefit of having childcare centers.
PWDC, together with TalentCorp and JCI Pearl, hosted this industry dialogue with the participation of manufacturing companies, service industry, NGOs and governmental agencies to promote the importance of work-life balance practices which represent the future of how work is done and what are the expectations of the future workforce. Deep-dive discussion conducted on barriers faced as well as solutions to overcome those barriers.