Riot presenting certificate to one of the delegates.
KUCHING: Skilled workers will make up the bulk of the nation’s workforce as the nation moves towards industrialised status by 2020.
According to Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem, about 60 per cent of the 1.5 million new jobs would require workers who had gone through technical vocational education and training (TVET) by 2020.
ThusTVET would be the most important avenue for increasing Malaysia’s skilled human capital base, adding that the government would focus on transforming TVET to meet industry demand.
“The government will intensify collaboration with industry to increase intake in TVET to meet industry demand,” he said when closing the World TVET Conference 2015 at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) yesterday.
He stressed that the government would also improve the quality of programmes and institutions and enhance the sector’s overall branding and profile.
He said collectively this advancement would produce sufficiently skilled graduates .
Riot added that it was expected that the intake of school leavers with Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) to TVET programmes would increase to 225,000 by 2020, compared to 164,000 in 2013.
“As Malaysia aspires to become an advanced and industrialised nation by 2020, the country requires human capital with knowledge and skills, as well as ethics and morality to drive inclusive and sustainable growth,” he said.
He added that to expedite the quantum leap of the rate of employability of TVET graduates, the entrepreneurship facet should be explored by TVET training providers and their students to create the competitive edge of TVET.
Meanwhile, Sarawak Skills Development Centre (PPKS) executive director Hallman Sabri, said the plenary session of the conference agreed to form TVET Association of Malaysia in collaboration with International Vocational Education Training Association (IVETA).
Some 700 delegates across the globe participated in the three-day event from Aug 25.