Enhancements to the Allowable Cost Matrix
HRD Corp’s ACM updates from the 2024–2025 cycle raised practical claim ceilings for in-house and public training, adjusted allowances, and clarified e-learning hour logic. For employers, the gain only materialises when course design, attendance, and documents match the matrix — higher caps do not mean automatic full recovery.
The Allowable Cost Matrix is still the ceiling table that shapes what Malaysian employers can recover under HRD Corp schemes. Enhancements referenced under Employer Circular No. 3/2024 and the later ACM table editions expanded several headline rates, but the operating rules that decide claims — hours, attendance, trainer type, and evidence — remain decisive.
What changed in practical terms
Employers planning grants should treat these as planning ceilings, not guaranteed payouts:
- In-house general courses: up to RM10,500/day/group for a full day (7 training hours); up to RM6,000 for a half day (4 hours)
- Local public general courses: up to RM1,750/day/pax (full day) and RM1,000/half day/pax
- E-learning: hour-based assistance, commonly planned from RM125/pax per hour equivalent steps up to the 7-hour block
- Meal allowance: up to RM100/day/pax where rules allow (typically with minimum training hours)
- Travel-related trainee/trainer allowances: distance bands still matter (including higher caps for longer travel)
Focus Area, industry-specific, and professional certification items may follow “as charged” logic under scheme conditions — still subject to attendance and documentation standards.
What did not become optional
Higher ceilings do not remove the usual failure points:
- Training hours that do not match the half-day / full-day logic used in the claim
- Attendance below the common 75% completion expectation, with proration where applicable
- Small in-house groups that trigger proration rules (including thresholds such as fewer than 5 pax, where relevant)
- Invoice, attendance, and outline mismatches
- Missing supporting documents at claim stage
How employers should use the enhancement
Use the updated ACM as a design constraint before you buy training — not as a recovery hope after delivery.
- Build the programme to real hour blocks (4-hour / 7-hour logic)
- Confirm trainer model early (internal vs external assumptions change the cost story)
- Keep one controlled document folder per run
- Separate “brochure price” conversations from “claimable ceiling” conversations with finance
Bottom line
The ACM enhancements improve headroom. They do not replace claim discipline. Employers who align outline, hours, attendance, and documents capture more of the intended value. Employers who only chase the new maximum numbers still lose money in queries and proration.
Plan programmes against current ACM logic
CXCons structures HRDC-oriented learning around practical ceilings, attendance rules, and document readiness — not brochure figures alone.
Based on HRD Corp Employer Circular No. 3/2024 themes and Allowable Cost Matrix table practice. Rates and conditions remain subject to current HRD Corp terms, scheme rules, and approval discretion. This is general guidance, not an official HRD Corp publication.