KUCHING: Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) school leavers in the state who are unable to pursue tertiary education should opt for technical training at the Centre of Excellence (Centexs) Sarawak.
In suggesting this, chief executive officer (CEO) of Centex, Syeed Mohd Hussien Wan Abd Rahman, said Centexs has several centres in the state like in Lawas, Mukah, Betong and Lundu to accommodate the SPM school leavers.
Mohd Hussien (fifth left) with his staff in a photocall at the ongoing World Skills Malaysia Sarawak Competition 2019.
Quoting statistics, he said only between 15 and 20 per cent of SPM schools leavers go for tertiary education.
“Based on our current statistics, there are 38,000 SPM students and only between 15 and 20 per cent go for tertiary education and the rest where do they go? So technical training is another gateway for them to develop their talent (technical),” he said when met at the World Skills Malaysia Sarawak Competition 2019 at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) yesterday.
The competition is ongoing till Sept 13.
In view of this, he said local youths ‘should wake up’ and 2seriously think of taking technical training, citing countries like Germany and Japan, where 60 per cent of the population have technical skills, which is worth emulating.
Mohd Hussien also said that Centexs gave focus to digitalisation in line with the state’s initiative to go digital through its partnership with Huawei from China and IBM from United States, both world standard technology companies.
On the competition, he said the champion will represent Sarawak at the national level competition in April next year, adding that the champion will also represent the country at the international level to be held in Russia in August.
He further said that Centexs would be organising Asean Culinary Heritage, to be held in January next year, to showcase the near-extinction delicacies, and 20 groups had shown interest to join the event, which he said might cost about RM2 million.