Kitingan (middle) presenting a certificate to one of the best students at the convocation ceremony.
KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan has proposed the idea of incorporating personal development and motivational courses into the existing agriculture training programmes for young Sabahans.
The Sabah Deputy Chief Minister believed that such courses would benefit young Sabahans who are pursuing a career in agriculture to become more independent.
“I have proposed two preparatory courses namely the concept of personal development and motivation so they can learn to become more independent and set bigger plans for themselves,” he said during the 50th Convocation of the Institute of Agriculture Sabah Timbang Manggaris as well as the 37th and 38th for the Agriculture Vocational Training Centre in Lahad Datu on Monday (Dec 5).
Kitingan, who is also state Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, said it was public knowledge that personal development and motivational courses were highly sought after in today’s competitive economy and are used by captains of industries to drive business growth.
He noted that the growth of the agriculture industry in Sabah could be further driven by trained young Sabahans who were more self-reliant in building their own career in the field.
He acknowledged that many graduates have successfully become self-employed and some even created new jobs that were related to agriculture.
“Some among them have reached a level as entrepreneurs and received the recognition as high achievers,” he said.
Kitingan said with the agriculture sector currently contributing 16% to the state’s gross domestic product (GDP), there were plenty of employment opportunities available for Sabahan youths.
To this end, he congratulated the two training institutes for having consistently produced competent young Sabahans to serve in the industry in various ways.
“I’m very proud of the quality of graduates produced by our Department of Agriculture,” he said.
He also expressed his appreciation to plantation companies, government departments and agencies for their support in providing industrial training to the students.
It is understood that 85 of the graduates had been offered employment with some of the companies soon after they completed their training.
A total of 246 graduates received their certificates and it was also learned that nearly 100% of them scored a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 3.0 and above.
