KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Rural Development Minister Sivarasa Rasiah today called for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutes to build closer ties with industries to secure jobs for their graduates.
Over 400 TVET students received their Diploma Kemahiran Malaysia (Diploma in Skills Malaysia) at Tech Terrain College’s (TTC) 10th graduation ceremony today with guaranteed job placements in the college’s 250 industry partners in the precision engineering, logistics and retail management industries.
TTC’s unique work and study model has helped the college successfully guarantee jobs for over 5,000 graduates over the last 17 years.
The work element of the programme also allows the students to be paid monthly allowances while studying — a model which Sivarasa wants other institutes to emulate.
“The link between industries and TVET training institutes has to be developed further.
“We need to introduce this model at other institutes,” said Sivarasa.
“We need to have a close rapport with industry so our students can work and train at the same time.
“If you look at advanced economies like Germany, Japan or South Korea, they have effective and relevant TVET programmes which engage with industries and give job guarantees.”
He admitted that the government’s target of raising the percentage of skilled workers in the country to 35% by next year from the current 28% was ambitious, but it is a goal that the government is determined to achieve.
Noting that Malaysia has not produced enough quality training over the last 10 years, the Sungai Buloh MP stressed that the government needs to do more to increase awareness about the importance of TVET to strengthen its appeal among parents.