Knowledge discovery for halal human capital and halal training programs in Malaysia

Abstract

The halal industry is one of the fastest growing markets with an annual value of USD 2.3 trillion. Correspondingly, personnel knowledgeable in the halal concept is currently in demand. Previous study on human capital growth in the halal industry has shown a shortage of competent employees with adequate knowledge of the halal concept. In fact, little is known about the current human capital needs and requirement of the halal industry. Hence, the main aim of this research is to identify the relationship between human capital requirements and training needs in the halal industry. Human capital dataset used in this research was provided by Jobstreet.com. To better understand the Jobstreet.com data, the dataset was classified into a more exact label with 70% of the data reclassified as training data and 30% as testing data. In order to transform the dataset into informative data, Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) framework was applied while neural network was utilised during the data mining phase. Several keywords were identified from the National Occupational Skills Standard (NOSS), Malaysian Halal Standard (MS1500:2009), and Manual Procedure for Malaysia Halal Certification (MPPHM). These keywords were then reclassified into three scenarios; (i) halal and Syariah, (ii) Jakim halal standard and halal certification, and (iii) halal internal auditing and professional halal executive. The classification of the dataset into “Yes” or “No” class label in scenario one and three recorded more than 80% accuracy rate. However, the neural network learning process was sluggish and model construction was time consuming due to the large data size. The final phase in the KDD framework is to produce visualisation graphs on human capital and training needs in the halal industry from year 2013 until 2015. The data shows that jobs from the manufacturing group which is in high demand are quality assurance and quality control executives, while the most sought-after trainings are on halal standard requirements and certification. The findings of this study contribute to employees and training providers’ understanding of the overall landscape of human capital development and training needs for the Malaysian halal industry.