If your company is registered with HRD Corp (Human Resource Development Corporation), you are already paying a monthly levy of 1% of each Malaysian employee's wages. That levy is not a tax; it is a training budget waiting to be used. Yet every year a significant share of levy goes unutilised because employers are unsure what qualifies and how to claim.
How the levy works
Employers in covered sectors with 10 or more Malaysian employees must register and contribute 1% of monthly wages (companies with 5 to 9 employees may opt in at 0.5%). Contributions accumulate in your levy account and can be claimed back against approved training costs: course fees, and in some schemes allowances for trainees and trainers.
What makes a course claimable
The course must be delivered by an HRD Corp registered training provider and the programme itself must be claimable under a scheme, most commonly SBL-Khas. Under SBL-Khas, the training provider bills HRD Corp directly for the course fee, so your team trains with little or no upfront cash outlay.
Before enrolling, check three things: the provider's HRD Corp registration, the programme's claimable status, and your own levy balance in the eTRiS system.
Planning a claimable training year
The employers who get the most from their levy treat it like a budget line, not an afterthought. A practical approach:
- Run a simple training needs analysis by department.
- Map needs to claimable programmes, prioritising compliance-critical roles such as safety and payroll.
- Schedule intakes across the year so operational coverage is maintained.
- Submit grant applications before training starts; claims are not retrospective.
Where MSDI fits
Most MSDI programmes, from the two-day Workplace Safety Awareness Program to the Advanced Certificate in Safety Management, are HRD Corp claimable, and our team handles the SBL-Khas paperwork end to end for corporate cohorts. Browse the programmes catalogue and filter by HRD Corp claimable to see what your levy can cover.