Ministry Tightens National Internship Programme with Biometric Verification to Curb Fake Vacancies

The Ministry of Manpower (Kemnaker) is tightening the mechanism for the 2026 National Internship Programme by implementing a biometric verification system for all participants. The move aims to close loopholes for brokerage practices while ensuring a more transparent registration process.

Manpower Minister Yassierli stated that the 2026 National Internship Programme registration period opened on 15 July and will close on 28 July 2026. He noted that before the registration phase opened, the ministry first conducted a verification process on all vacancy proposals from companies, ministries, and agencies.

“We carried out a fairly strict verification. We looked at whether the company is legitimate and whether it honestly reports its employment data,” Yassierli said at the Parliament Building on Monday (20/7/2026).

He added that the screening process also assessed the suitability of the positions offered to interns. The ministry will not accept vacancies deemed incompatible with the competencies of university graduates. “Secondly, is the company genuinely opening vacancies appropriate for a university graduate’s position? If not, we strike it out,” he continued.

Beyond checking company administration, Kemnaker also conducted direct inspections of company locations to ensure the vacancies offered genuinely exist and do not originate from fictitious companies. “That is why, before we opened this phase, we carried out verification. We checked whether the company’s location truly exists, whether it is fictitious, and so on,” he explained.

Another change implemented this year is the use of biometric technology in the participant registration process. With this system, every applicant is required to verify their identity independently, preventing representation by another party. “It now uses biometrics, so there can no longer be internship registration brokers. They must register themselves,” Yassierli asserted.

Yassierli expressed hope that this year’s programme can serve as an instrument to improve human resource quality while accelerating workforce absorption, amid industry demand for graduates with work experience. “Hopefully, this will be better, much better, and it requires support from all our media colleagues. We hope this national internship programme becomes one of the solutions to prepare our workforce to be better and more productive,” he said.