HRDF Field Notes — 21 May 2026

This is Thursday’s HRDF Field Notes — a practical read for Malaysian HR Managers and L&D Heads. Where Monday’s roundup tracks circulars and announcements, Thursday’s edition focuses on what those signals mean for your actual training claims: rate implications, approval patterns, and AI-course category trends that affect Q3 planning.

What’s new

• HRD Corp governance probe continues. As of February 2026, three more HRD Corp management officials were suspended as part of an ongoing internal investigation into alleged mismanagement. CEO Shamir Aziz described the suspensions as procedural steps to protect the integrity of the probe. The investigation has been confirmed through multiple press statements from HRD Corp and reporting by Free Malaysia Today.
• RM2.62 billion approved in 2025 — a 32% year-on-year jump. HRD Corp’s full-year 2025 figure, reported by the New Straits Times in January 2026, marks the highest single-year disbursement in the corporation’s history. Growth was driven largely by SME uptake and increased digitalisation-related claims.
• MDEC AI Skills Training programme concludes April 2026. The MDEC AI Skills Training initiative — four tracked programmes covering AI for office management, sales functions, Google Workspace, and HR management — ran from August 2025 through April 2026. Each track was claimable under SBL at RM5,500 per participant. Per MDEC’s published schedule, the cohort window has now closed.
• AI training SBL-Khas rates confirmed for 2026. Multiple registered training providers have published 2026 rate sheets consistent with HRD Corp’s current schedule: SMEs with fewer than 200 staff are eligible for 100% SBL-Khas subsidy on approved AI programmes; non-SME employers access 50–80% depending on programme type. Group rates run up to RM10,000 per trainer per day; online-only programmes cap at RM300 per participant per programme.

Why it matters for your training claims

The governance investigation is the most practically significant item on this list. When HRD Corp undergoes internal management changes, approval queues can lengthen and standard correspondence slows. HR teams processing claims right now should build an additional five to ten working days into their timeline assumptions and ensure every submission has complete documentation — missing attachments that would normally be caught at follow-up may instead sit in queue with no outreach.

The RM2.62 billion disbursement figure is worth noting for a different reason: it signals that levy pools are actively being drawn down, particularly by SMEs. If your company has been contributing levy without claiming, your accumulated balance may be working against you — unclaimed levy does not roll over indefinitely, and the regulatory environment consistently rewards active utilisers. The 32% YoY growth also suggests that HRD Corp’s approvals infrastructure is under higher load than in prior years, which reinforces the documentation-completeness point above.

The MDEC AI Skills cohort closure is a gap employers often overlook. Teams that missed the MDEC programme now need to source an equivalent SBL-Khas-registered alternative independently. The good news is that the four programme tracks — AI for office workflows, sales functions, Google Workspace, and HR operations — map closely to course categories already registered by private HRDF-registered providers. The key eligibility requirement remains the same: the provider must be on the HRD Corp register, the programme must include an assessment component, and certificates must be issued. Employers unsure whether a prospective provider meets this bar should verify registration status on the HRD Corp employer portal before committing.

What to do next

1. Check your outstanding claims. Log into the HRD Corp employer portal and review any claims submitted in the past 60 days. Given the current management disruption, follow up proactively on anything older than 30 working days without a status change rather than waiting for HRD Corp to contact you.
2. Audit your levy balance against Q3 training plans. If you have not claimed in Q1 or Q2 2026, compare your current levy balance against your planned cohort costs for the second half of the year. If the balance is materially higher than your H2 plans, consider adding a course or bringing forward a scheduled cohort to avoid under-utilisation.
3. Identify an SBL-Khas-registered AI training provider for H2 2026. With the MDEC programme window closed, scope replacements now. Confirm the provider is on the HRD Corp register, verify that your preferred course code is active (not expired or suspended), and submit your SBL-Khas application at least 14 days before training start — retroactive claims are not permitted under the scheme rules.

Based in Penang — delivering nationwide. Contact [email protected] to scope your next HRDF-claimable cohort.