PUTRAJAYA: The transformation of the National Youth Skills Institute (IKBN) will only succeed if the quality of lecturers and teaching modules were in line with industry’s requirements, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said.
He said all the 20 IKBN in the country should expedite the process to foster close cooperation with the industry as it would enhance the quality of curriculum and lecturers at the skills institute.
“Our efforts to work closely with the industry is not only limited to the job opportunities and on-the-job training, but is also an initiative to improve the quality of lecturers and teaching modules.
“This cooperation will be able to formulate new skills training that will meet the industry’s requirement and inadvertently, will enhance the level of competency of IKBN trainees.”
He said this to reporters after witnessing the signing of the memorandum of understanding ((MOU) between the ministry, which represented the Miri IKBN, and the Oceancare Corporation Sdn Bhd here yesterday.
The MOU aimed, among others at enabling the company to create a special programme with specific curriculum that suits the company’s requirement in the oil and gas industry and to choose at least 20 IKBN graduates a year to join the programme.
It also assured employment for the 20 IKBN graduates with starting salary of RM800, besides placement and training for 36 IKBN lecturers a year under the Train The Trainers programme.
Khairy said the cooperation with the industry would also bring about positive impact to the level of marketability of IKBN graduates.
The minister said to achieve the target of having wider scope of cooperation between IKBN and the industry, the ministry had also fixed the key performance indicator (KPI) to see each IKBN to sign two MOU a year with relevant industry players.
However, he said the KPI was still far from being achieved as most MoU were signed with the industry at the ministry level. — Bernama