KUCHING: Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is the answer to meet the skills and technical knowledge required in the labour market, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.
He proudly noted that vocational graduates recorded 97.02 percent marketability as of last year.
“The marketability of the students is high and that is why the state government emphasises on TVET learning to ensure that we can fulfil the need for skilled and semi-skilled labour.
“At the same time, TVET institutions also take particular attention when it comes to fulfilling the requirements of industrial sectors apart from collaborating with industry players.
“This is to ensure that there would not be a mismatch situation where the training and learning we have provided for the students all this while are not meeting the requirement of the industry,” he said when officiating at the Kuching Vocational College Excellence Award 2019 here, yesterday.
Awang Tengah cited the industrial estate in Sama Jaya High Tech Park as an example which recorded over 12,000 workforce and 98 percent of them were local workers with 80 percent of the workers being TVET-skilled.
“Meanwhile, Longi, a company which produces solar panel products, has over 3,000 workers. From that total, about 700 are engineers.
“What I want to highlight is that upon reshuffling the learning syllabus, we have to take into consideration the industries concerned,” he continued.
Awang Tengah also noted that Sarawak, for the last six years, has been on the top three favourite investment destination in the country among local and foreign investors.
“This will not only stimulate our development but also help realise our desire to further enhance our industry as well as to provide employment opportunities for our children. This opportunity can only be fully utilised by those who are skilled like you,” he said to the students.
At the event, Awang Tengah announced a grant worth RM20,000 to the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of Kuching Vocational College.
Also present were International Trade and Industry, Terminal Industry and Entrepreneurship Assistant Minister Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais, the college’s PTA chairman Dr Daram Ruer, Kuching Vocational College director Arni Suhaili and state Education Department representative Dr Les Met.
