KUALA NERUS, June 19 — The Ministry of Human Resources (KSM) has recommended that all ministries running the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme work more actively with industry players to empower the programme.
Its Minister, V. Sivakumar, said that the matter is one of the issues he will bring up in the National TVET Council (MTVET) meeting, which will be chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, at the end of this month.
“We have a lot (of things) to be discussed in the meeting, and one of them is KSM’s achievements thus far regarding the collaboration with the industry.
“We (KSM) are not the only one under MTVET. All the ministries which run TVET programmes are also in the council. Hence, it is not only for us that need this collaboration, we want all other ministries to collaborate with the industry,” he said.
He said this at a press conference, after attending the East Coast Zone Customer Day at the Kuala Terengganu Industrial Training Institute (ILP), here today.
Sivakumar, who previously participated in the Local Industry Dialogue with industry players and TVET training providers for the east coast, said that the issue of low wages would also be brought up in the meeting, even though Ahmad Zahid had already mentioned it several times.
“He once mentioned that one of the problems why many people don’t choose TVET is because of the low wages. We cannot pay employees who have a TVET qualification at the same level as Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) holders.
“As what the Deputy Prime Minister mentioned, they (TVET graduates) should at least be paid RM3,000,” he said.
Sivakumar, in sharing the Future of Jobs Report 2023 by the World Economic Forum, which reported that 69 million new jobs will be created in the next five years, said that most of these jobs will be pioneered by the TVET field.
“Jobs that will see stable growth are in fields which have a direct relationship with TVET, such as machine and technology operators, artificial intelligence (AI) technology analysts and vocational instructors.
“That is why most of the jobs we are creating now are jobs which require these skills, related to changes in terms of technology such as AI. In the next five to 10 years we need a lot of people who have these skills,” he said.
