Essay: Technical and Vocational Education and Training

Planning for a future career is tough. There are a thousand and one things to consider. From the cost of education, interests, job satisfaction, pay and managing social expectations; it is not an easy undertaking. Thankfully, there are many career paths and one compelling route is Technical and Vocational Education and Training or TVET for short.
According to UNESCO, TVET is an aspect of the educational process involving, in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding, and knowledge relating to occupation in various sectors of economic life.
Technical and Vocational Education and Training consists of apprenticeship training, vocational education, technical education, technical-vocational education, occupational education, vocational education and training, professional and vocational education, career and technical education, workforce education, workplace education, and others. Going into TVET will equip you with the practical skills that will transform you into a skilled worker ready for the real world. Increasingly, it has become more apparent that academic qualifications are not the be all end of career paths as seen with the oversupply of fresh graduates in Malaysia. However, the million RM question is should TVET be considered?
The new chairman of the Malaysian Vocational Technical Education and Training Authority (TVET) Committee, Nurul Izzah Anwar emphasized that the target was to lift the reputation of TVET and its related certificates. YB Nurul Izzah said the initial steps took into account the feedback of all stakeholders including students, trainers, employees and directors. Over half a million Malaysians are out of the formal education environment. It is our responsibility to lift TVET so that more people will join.
According to The Star and other news outlets, the Government plans to raise the minimum wage for local skilled workers to RM3,500 up from RM1,200 — achieving parity with skilled foreign workers. This is part of the plan to eventually raise this amount to RM5,000 by 2030. This proposal was put forward along with other efforts to meet the demand for skilled workers who underwent TVET training.
Although this may or may not come to pass, it is clear that skilled workers are in high demand in Malaysia. This effort along with others shows that the Government is committed to making this a viable career path, This is in large part due to the demand for skilled workers and the shortage in supply of skilled workers.
Malaysia needs more skilled workers. Call for the training of more skilled workers would allow Malaysia to be competitive in a variety of industries. Currently, Malaysia is facing a labor crunch in the logistics, manufacturing and agriculture industries. These industries had to resort to finding foreign workers to fill this gap. The stats back this up as well.
Compared to other developed countries, skilled workers in Malaysia consisted of only 28% of the local workforce, compared to 43% in developed countries. It is clear that there is a demand for local skilled workers that need to be filled in Malaysia. For a country to develop and progress; having skilled workers from TVET institutes are as important if not more important as having tertiary graduates.
New jobs created in Malaysia will require skilled workers with TVET. In addition, The Sun Daily reported that out of the 1.5 million jobs that the government is targeting to create by 2020, an estimated 60% will require someone with a TVET education. Moreover, people who underwent TVET training could access a myriad of employment opportunities as business people and digital technopreneurs. Clearly, the government is behind this initiative, raising the validity of embarking on TVET and becoming a skilled worker as a career path.
TVET careers are promising and rewarding. Not everyone is academically inclined or well suited for tertiary education. A TVET education is great if you fulfill criteria such as you may prefer a more hands-on approach to learning that takes place outside the classroom, you already have an ideal career or some industry you would like to work in, you may feel that studying too much is waste of time and you would like to start work and soon as possible and you would like to learn practical things in the real world. Most of these courses will allow you to work and study giving you a higher degree of freedom. TVET will allow you to do all these things and more.
Tertiary education is expensive and not suited for everyone. We have to face the fact that university education is not for everyone. If the thought of the SPM can gives you PTSD, pursuing an alternate career path may be better. Furthermore, studying in university is not cheap at all. An article by The New Straits Times in 2017 showed that tuition fees in the country cost an average of RM38,000 a year. This puts a huge strain on the parents who send their children to the university as it may cost as much as half their salaries to send their children there. This fee does not include daily expenses and often many parents take up loans to send their children to university. In contrast, TVET programs are often cheaper, take less time, more flexible and offer good career prospects as well.
According to Malay Mail (October 6, 2018) Government wants experts to coach trainers for vocational scheme. Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran at a press conference in Ipoh October 6, 2018 said that the government is planning to recruit experts from India and Ukraine to train the trainers of the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme. He said many TVET institutions need to be upgraded, adding that government-to-government approaches would best address this. This approach would reduce employers’ dependency on skilled foreign workers. When the trainers are equipped with knowledge and experience from experts, they can train the students well and it would allow the students to get accredited certificates. Companies do not have to depend on foreign workers and the students who complete the programme can earn a better wage.
Employees are also urged to take up the courses in the TVET programme to upgrade their skills as TVET programme is not only for school leavers. Workers are also eligible to join the programme. Most of the companies are willing to raise the wage provided that the workers have accredited certificates. It is said that the ministry is willing to provide financial aid for the workers who wanted to join the TVET programme.
We need to correct all the possibilities of the existence of the villagers so that eventually the TVET certificate holders are proud and are highly regarded as those who have a degree. TVET has a lot of potential to achieve high levels like in countries such as Germany and Australia. Do not remember TVET is just the ability of the second class because it is a shared responsibility to upgrade its qualifications so that it can be lifted to the first class. At the same time it is able to bring Malaysia’s name in line with our preparation towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0).
Billions of money spend? – article nurul izzah The Star
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
We must identify the issues of our country and our society. TVET issues have become so widespread that the Pakatan Harapan government had to establish a TVET Empowerment Committee in June and appointed Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar as its chairperson.
In the Mid-Term Review of the 11th Malaysia Plan (RMK-11) which was tabled recently, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said that the government was working on improving the capabilities of youth in the field of TVET.
Among the issues plaguing TVET are the overlapping education system, the certification system, the lack of funding and the uncertain future of TVET graduates.
The ministries involved were the Rural and Regional Development Ministry (KKLW), the Education Ministry (KPM), the Higher Education Ministry (now under the Education Ministry), the Human Resources Ministry, the Youth and Sports Ministry, the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry, the Works Ministry and the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry (KeTTHA).
Every ministry uses a different model and organises their own TVET programmes with their own accreditation. They have their own fields and they don’t share (those models) with the others. Promoting the idea of a main institution would be a good TVET progress.
Other situations that also contribute to TVET issues are different curriculums for the same programme, the lack of a standardised TVET certification system and bureaucracy issues when it comes to sharing human resources and equipment.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
This study aims to look at the professionalism of trainers in Technical and Vocational Education and their role as TVET trainers. Applying leadership personality and change readiness will highly drove the skills of the trainers. Therefore, it is important in helping the TVET trainers to build basic knowledge with respect to the leadership personality and change readiness, which should be the main qualities of a good TVET trainer. This is an effort to produce quality TVET trainers and thus produce students who are highly skilled, multi-tasking and have a high level of readiness in future career fields related to TVET