Take up maritime courses — Len Talif

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(Front row from fifth right) Len, Masni, the company’s directors and others perform the earth-breaking ceremony.

MIRI: Sarawak is targeting to have a good percentage of the 40,000 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) leavers annually to take up maritime related courses as part of the efforts to enhance the nation’s security, especially offshore.

Assistant Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment, Datu Len Talif Salleh, said Sarawak and Malaysia being a maritime nation ought to continuously safeguard its offshore territories.

“Besides encouraging the 40,000 SPM leavers in Sarawak to take up any technical, vocational training courses and pursuing tertiary education, we also encourage some to take up maritime based courses so that they can effectively contribute towards the development of the nation.

“As long as there is the sea, opportunities are plenty in the maritime based industry,” he told reporters after performing the earth-breaking ceremony for Maritime Training Institute of Pelita Mas Laut Sdn Bhd here yesterday.

Among those present were Sibuti MP Lukanisman Awang Sauni; deputy director (Administration) of Marine Department Sarawak, Bainus Muyou who represented the director general of Marine Department Malaysia Dato Baharin Abdul Hamid, acting Miri Resident Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusuf; director of Yayasan Sarawak, Azmi Bujang; Group managing director of Pelita Mas Laut Sdn Bhd, Masni Amit; and managing director of the company, Haminah Abun.

Len commended Masni and the company for their vision in setting up the institute in Miri, their biggest training facility in Sarawak and Sabah.

“It is the company’s first training institute in Sarawak and the biggest in Sarawak which could train 1,000 students at any one time and currently they have rented training centres in Miri, Sibu and Sabah that had so far in the past 20 years trained 800 people,” he said.

Len assured that the government will continue to support efforts of the private sector to complement the government’s efforts in producing more skilled workers in Sarawak, adding that for Pelita Mas Laut, the government allocated the company 15 acres of land for the institute, at Lot 4048, Block 6, KBLD Tudan.

Meanwhile, Masni said the RM12million institute will be built in two stages and will take 18 months to complete.

“Once completed and all the facilities in place, we will also have smart partnership with our foreign counterparts to have courses at diploma level,” he said, adding that currently they only conduct short-term courses.

He said among the facilities to be made available at the training complex are simulators for ship and engine, workshops, swimming pool, training facilities on fire fighting and sea survival besides 14 classrooms, and administrative units.