Malaysia should emulate Germany's TVET success story - Maszlee

 

PARLIAMENT | Malaysia should emulate Germany’s successful approach towards technical and vocational education and training (TVET), said Maszlee Malik (Independent-Simpang Renggam).

“Among the reasons for the TVET system’s success in Germany is that their TVET is spearheaded by the industry and not the government.

“The logic is that the industry understands better what they want out of the workforce and quality of TVET graduates, so they are more qualified to determine the TVET system in the country,” said Maszlee, who was formerly the education minister under the Pakatan Harapan administration.

He was speaking during the debate on the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Maszlee said the TVET ratings in Germany are also determined by an industry-led body and that there is a Centre of Excellence which is managed by the industries.

He also praised "German dual vocational training", where trainees are placed in companies in the relevant industries to be trained.

“I hope the National TVET Council announced by the Malaysian government will adopt this model.

“It must be led by the industry, just like the National TVET committee which was established in 2019,” he said.

A robust TVET system is the way to overcome the issue of unemployment, marketability of fresh graduates as well as to uplift the bumiputera, Maszlee said.

At the same time, Maszlee also urged the government to revive the free breakfast programme for primary school students in order to tackle the widespread issue of morbidity and malnutrition among young schoolchildren.

Various reports had highlighted this issue previously, including those from Unicef and Khazanah Research Institute since 2018 up to 2020, he said.

“The children’s growth process through nutritious food is also a part of a holistic education system.

“Upon this realisation, the free breakfast programme for primary schoolchildren should be reimplemented under the 12MP,” he urged.

He said this is expected to benefit almost 2.7 million schoolchildren for 200 days a year, based on a study in 2019. - Mkini