A gap year initiative will be introduced in tertiary institutions this September by the Ministry of Higher Education, Deputy Higher Education Minister Mary Yap announced today.
“The latest initiative by the Ministry of Higher Education is the 'gap year', where students will have the opportunity to explore their interest and the world.
“It is optional, not compulsory,” Yap told reporters after officiating the Graduate Employability and Industrial Transformation Forum 2017 at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) today.
A popular practice in Australia, Europe and the United States, a gap year is when a student, after completing secondary school, can take a year off before beginning tertiary education.
She explained that her ministry would also be collaborating with the Ministry of Defence to offer students the option of doing a “structured gap year” by joining the National Service.
Otherwise, students could opt to do an “unstructured gap year” where they could travel the world, engage in voluntary work and involve themselves in entrepreneurship, Yap said.
UKM vice-chancellor Noor Azlan Ghazali (photo) said youths are already opting to delay joining the workforce.
“We see a new kind of trend where youths are not in a rush to get a job, they are delaying getting a job.
“The gap year that the ministry is initiating is a demonstration that the youths favour doing voluntary work and starting their own businesses,” Noor Azlan said.
An economist by training, Noor Azlan said these were the new phenomena in the labour market that universities like UKM needed to address.
Yap also spoke on the progress made by the National Education Blueprint (NEB), which was lanched in April 2015.
Implemented initiatives include collaborating with industries to reform how education is delivered in higher learning institutions and coordinating with other ministries to offer technical and vocational education training to students, she said.- Mkini
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