KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof has been appointed Yayasan Peneraju Pendidikan Bumiputera (Yayasan Peneraju) Board of Trustees chairman and the first meeting he chaired was on July 13.

Yayasan Peneraju in a statement today said other members appointed to the board were Yayasan Peneraju deputy chairman Datuk Saiful Anuar Lebai Hussen, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad, former Education director-general and Yayasan Sarana Pendidikan Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghafar Mahmud, and Heriot-Watt University Malaysia and Skymind Holdings Bhd chairman Datuk Yasmin Mahmood.

"The appointment of the new board members is expected to accelerate the agency's aspirations in nurturing and developing human capital and making them competitive in various sectors as Yayasan Peneraju was initiated to build and strengthen bumiputera talents to be futureproof," read the statement.

Apart from Yayasan Peneraju, Mohd Redzuan who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Special Functions) also leads four other government bodies, namely the Shared Prosperity Delivery Unit (Sepadu), National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA), Malaysian Civil Defence Force (APM) and Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju).

Trained as a civil engineer, he has gained extensive experience in engineering and entrepreneurship, and has served in several local and international companies before he was made the Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives earlier on, said the statement.

Yayasan Peneraju is confident that with the board members' vast experience and knowledge and support of the industry advisory councils, strategic partners, programme managers as well as educational institutions, the programmes to be implemented would continue to meet industries' demand and provide high income opportunities to all bumiputera talent segments, it added.

Yayasan Peneraju is a body which has been given the mandate to improve the quality, quantity and relevance of bumiputera talents, to develop a high income nation through academic, vocational and professional certification programmes.

Yayasan Peneraju has so far managed to train over 37,000 talents nationwide through 276 self-funding programmes and helped reduce skills gap by offering a quality workforce.

-- BERNAMA