What Are HRD Corp Claimable Courses? A Guide for Malaysian Employers

If your company is registered with HRD Corp and pays the levy, you have already unlocked a real set of benefits. The most useful one is access to quality training and development programmes matched to your business and industry needs.

Registered employers get more than training alone. HRD Corp offers special funds and grants under national initiatives such as Program Latihan MADANI, ongoing advisory support on HR and levy utilisation, and eligibility for the Human Resource Development Award, a national recognition that helps attract talent. Your levy payment is also an allowable expense under the Income Tax Act 1967, so it is value for money rather than a sunk cost.

What HRD Corp Claimable Courses are

HRD Corp Claimable Courses is HRD Corp's programme for helping employers retrain and upskill their people in line with real operational and business needs. It is the main way registered employers put their levy to work as training.

HRD Corp supports both in-house and public training, as long as it runs for at least four hours. Beyond the course fee, you can often claim other costs too, such as trainee allowances, consumable training materials, venue rental, and transport. Refer to HRD Corp's Allowable Cost Matrix for the full list.

Who can claim

Registration with HRD Corp is mandatory once you employ ten or more Malaysian workers, and optional if you have five to nine. Registered employers pay a monthly levy of one percent of wages and fixed allowances (0.5 percent under the optional category), and that levy is what funds your claims. Not sure of your status? Check the HRD Corp portal or ask your HR lead.

SBL-Khas and SBL, explained

You will see two scheme names thrown around. They are not the same thing.

• HRD Corp Claimable Courses (SBL-Khas). This is the scheme for courses run by an HRD Corp registered training provider, like us. The provider claims the course fee directly from HRD Corp, so less money leaves your hands upfront. This is what most companies use, and what this guide is about.
• SBL (Skim Bantuan Latihan). A separate scheme for training you run in-house using your own internal trainers. You pay the costs yourself first, then submit a claim to get reimbursed from your levy balance.

In short: SBL-Khas covers registered courses from an external provider; SBL covers training you deliver yourself. Both draw from the levy you already pay. A good provider will tell you which applies before you commit.

How a claim works, start to finish

1. Choose a claimable course and an HRD Corp registered training provider, like us.
2. Apply for grant approval on the HRD Corp portal before the training date, under the HRD Corp Claimable Courses scheme.
3. Once the grant is approved, run the training.
4. The provider claims the course fee directly from HRD Corp. You submit the supporting documents, such as attendance and invoice, and claim any other allowable costs you paid, such as trainee allowances.

It sounds like a lot. In practice a provider who does this every week handles most of the course-fee side for you. One rule to keep in mind: HRD Corp reimburses the approved amount or your actual expenses, whichever is lower, so the grant approval sets your ceiling.

Where companies get it wrong

The most common mistake is not applying before the training date. Grants are approved in advance, not after the fact, so a great course booked at the last minute may not be claimable. The second is not putting the levy to work across the year. The budget is already funded, so the win is simply claiming against it before it lapses.

What counts as claimable

A wide range: leadership, AI and digital skills, marketing, finance, compliance, and more, as long as the course and provider are registered and the training is relevant to your business. The relevance test is real. Training your finance team in advanced prompting is easy to justify. Training them in flower arranging is not.

Our own courses, across AI, leadership, marketing, digital adoption, and financial planning, are HRD Corp claimable. As the training provider, we claim the course fee directly from HRD Corp; you submit the grant application and claim any other allowable costs yourself. If you want to put your levy to work this year, talk to us.