Vocational colleges need ‘state of the art’ facilities — Director

0
Flora Imor Phillips

Flora Imor Phillips

KUCHING: Sarawak needs ‘state of the art’ facilities in its vocational colleges to improve the marketability of their graduates.

Kuching Vocational College director Flora Imor Phillips said this is to expose students to new methods and up-to-date technologies that would improve their skills to be on par with graduates of similar colleges around the world.

“If the government wants us to be in a certain pedestal of producing a skilled workforce then they must be serious in investing in technologies that are compatible with the rest of the world or else we will be left behind,” she said.

“We have a special ministry and minister in charge to ensure that we have a skilled workforce as we move towards a high income economy and to prepare for many industries in SCORE. Thus it is only fair that we have new technologies within our grasp,” she added.

Flora was speaking to reporters at the 5th Cohort 2016 Registration Day of the college at Jalan Kolej, Batu Lintang here yesterday.

On the college, she said besides being given a comprehensive syllabus so that they are employable, students are also taught entrepreneurial skills to prepare them for business.

“What we teach are in compliance with many regulatory bodies like National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) and also approved by the Ministry of Human Resources,” she pointed out.

She said what they were doing was to create the best opportunities for their students to be highly skilled as the country moved towards becoming an industrialised nation.

Flora is optimistic that vocational education is the way forward for many of the young people who are good with their hands and less inclined to academics.

“We have a very strong Parent-Teacher Association which is very supportive of us and we have hard working and dedicated lecturers who are committed to ensuring that students deserve a place in the workforce market,” she said.