Dr M urges major industry players to support TVET

PUTRAJAYA: The government has called on Malaysia's major industry players to support its technical and vocational education and training (TVET) agenda.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government recognises TVET as one of the keys in the country's aspiration to become a developed nation.

"Graduates from TVET programmes that are joint ventures between public TVET institutions and multinational companies have proven to be successful, where almost 90% of TVET graduates have been able to get a job after graduation.

"Because of this, the major players such as public and private TVET institutes should get out of their comfort zone and find effective solutions.

"I urge that more major industry players will be active in developing human capital and support the implementation of national TVET policies, especially in helping local TVET graduates by recognising the skills they have and then sharing the expertise available," said Dr Mahathir, in his speech at the 2019 TVET Conference here on Tuesday (July 9).

Dr Mahathir added that producing more skilled manpower would reduce the country's dependence on foreign workers.

"The government will continue to strive to enhance the capacity of Malaysian youths in TVET to ensure the needs of high technology industries can be met by local workers.

"This will also change the labour market in which the government can prioritise producing more highly skilled jobs that offer high income.

"This is in line with our efforts to attract high quality investments to this country," said Dr Mahathir.

Later, Dr Mahathir engaged in a dialogue session with chief executives of the industry. Also present was Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran.

The theme of the two-day conference is "Human Capital Development to Enhance Future Skills Agenda".