KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) and Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) are apprehensive over the job prospects being faced by Technical and Vocational Educational Training (TVET) graduates.
MTUC president Datuk Abdul Halim Mansor questioned as to whether Malaysia was "creating a supply for jobs that were not quite there yet".
“Manufacturing companies had been bowing out of Penang, Johor and Selangor, this education sector was an emphasis through the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the foreign direct investment that was expected through it.”
“Now that it has been shelved, are we not jumping the gun?,” he asked.
Halim was responding to messages going viral that some TVET courses offered by local institutions do not have the required Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) accreditation.
He said that there was also a dearth of industries involvement in TVET in Malaysia, unlike Japan and Germany, where automative makers such as Honda and Mercedes Benz play a vital role.
Halim said that there was also no data on the number of Malaysian TVET graduates who had entered the job market as of 2017 and their salary scale per industry, leaving the public without a clear picture on the growth of TVET based jobs and its long term prospects.
He adds that the coordinating-committee meeting on the subject that was hosted by the Human Resources Ministry on January 16 also appeared to be an academic discussion.
“There lies the issue. They didn’t call us as they think it had nothing to do with trade unions, they didn’t even contact us to get our feedback before the meeting,” he said.
The meeting was attended by seven ministries.
Halim said the non-presence of the relevant stakeholders at the meeting was also absurd as TVET students were give on the job training by workers in related vocational industries.
“If we segregate these field workers from pitching in, then a small group of people who do not have hands on experienced in the vocational or trade sectors will most probably incorrectly determine the future of many.”
“Moving forward however the government should make it compulsory for every student to be put in a working pool to train them in vocational jobs for a year after they finish school,” he added.
Meanwhile Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim stressed that the government has to be focused on what it wants.
“Malaysia is skilled at producing graduates. The question that we have to address now is where are the jobs. Its not just TVET but also in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). We will be encouraging the brain drain,” she said, adding that lots of science graduates in fields like biotechnology left the country due to the dearth.
“We had learned these hard lessons now but it’s too late now as they are mostly overseas. We encourage them to take this route and at the end of the day when there is no jobs. Parents will encourage them to find work elsewhere,” she added.
Azimah called for the government to organise a TVET lab to ensure no one in the TVET council worked in silos as parents and taxpayers made heavy investments on education.
On Jan 16 the Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot announced that a TVET council would be established soon with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as its chairman. The coordination-committee was attended by Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh and Deputy Education Minister Datuk P. Kamalanathan.