KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Wood Industry Skills Development Centre (Wisdec) is committed to helping the industry meet manpower needs by offering carpentry courses on weekends to Sabahans.
The Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB) Sabah Region head Mohd Razman Mohamad Azizuddin said the course conducted by Wisdec was conducted through the allocation of the 12th Malaysia Plan via the transformation and strengthening of human capital in the timber industry.
“The government is committed to developing human capital in the timber sector, especially among the Sabahans and in addition to meeting the needs of the industry, it also allows the participants to enhance their skills,” he told Bernama.
The weekend courses have five series. The second series which lasted for two days had just concluded yesterday. It involved 10 participants from the media and members of the public who had successfully constructed a folding table or ‘taing-taing’ in the local language.
The first series was held from Sept 9 to 10 with 16 participants, who were required to make stools. The fifth series will be held on Oct 29.
Meanwhile, this writer had the opportunity to experience handling carpentry equipment for the first time to make a folding table.
Apart from having the opportunity to operate modern machines to cut wood in a faster and safer way, participants were also taught other basic things in carpentry including how to use tools such as an orbital sander, cordless drill, miter saw, circular saw and thicknesser machine.
Camphor wood which was prepared needed to be cut to a certain size before being sanded with sandpaper so that the wood surface was smooth and beautiful before being joined using screws.
One of the participants, Norsyhirah Osman, 29, an entrepreneur from Tebobon, who participated in the course for the second time, was very excited as the course helped enhance her carpentry skills to make her own furniture, on top of only RM10 course fee.
She also hopes that the additional skills she gained through the course will give her an advantage as an entrepreneur in various fields in the future.
“This course is very beneficial to the general public, especially to those who want to deepen their skills in carpentry,” she said. – BERNAMA
