Move to rebrand TVET
07 Mar 2022
The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) will be rebranded to correct its negative perception, says the Prime Minister.
The Higher Education Ministry and its related agencies, said Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, needed to rebrand the stream to eliminate parents’ perception of TVET as being second class education or irrelevant.
“Many parents have a negative perception of TVET and consider this stream as second class or focusing only on dropouts.
“However, in countries such as Germany and France, this education stream is the main choice,” Ismail Sabri said at the launch of the Kolej Komuniti Pontian at Muafakat Complex Sungai Pinggan here yesterday.
Elaborating on the proposal to formulate a new TVET policy, Bernama quoted Ismail Sabri as saying that students should be given the option to choose subjects in the field at an earlier stage.
“In developed countries, TVET education starts at the beginning of a child’s education, but it is different here where TVET is taught to students after Form Three.
“That’s why we (the government) propose for the ministry to formulate a new policy on TVET so that students can choose the subjects they want to pursue from Form One,” he said.
On the opportunity for TVET certificate holders to advance to tertiary level, Ismail Sabri said this had been expanded compared to before when the certificates could not be used to further their studies at universities.
“Today, there are several universities in the country that accept students’ vocational certificates and TVET training certificates for them to further their studies at the tertiary level.
“Parents should not feel inferior when their children study in vocational schools and TVET institutions because our tagline is ‘TVET menjadi pilihan pertama untuk kerjaya’ (TVET is the first choice for a career),” he said.
He also expressed his confidence that every skilled worker produced by TVET would lead to trained skilled workers capable of creating their own jobs with their skills.
“The proof is that the marketability rate of TVET graduates in 2020 was 87%, which is more than the marketability rate of graduates at the national level at 84.4%.
“Specifically, the marketability rate of community college graduates in the same year was 94.2%. This is the highest among the public skills training institutes we have in Malaysia,” he said.
Ismail Sabri said TVET products, including community colleges, were popular with employers, adding that these played a big role in offering access to the local community to improve their skills.
“With the lifelong learning approach provided by community colleges, I am confident that the aspiration to provide training and skills needed at all ages is feasible,” he said.
Source: The Star
