Industry Participation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Malaysia

Industry Participation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Malaysia

Amirmudin Udin , Nurihah Mohamad Saleh,  Mahfuzah Musban , and Norsyazreen Ramlan 

 Department of Technical and Engineering Education, 

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai 81310, Johor Malaysia

Abstract. Collaboration between industry and academia supports improvement and innovation in industry and helps to ensure industrial relevance in academic research. As Malaysia are now in the process of workforce transformation, therefore this paper presents an exploratory study of the industry participation in linking technical and vocational education and training (TVET) with the world of work. It was also attempts to state the issues and challenges of industry collaboration while at the same time focusing on the factors that hinder industry involvement to collaborate with the TVET institution. Furthermore, some explanation is also given to the strategy in linking industry with TVET.

Keywords: industry, technical and vocational education and training, academic fields.

1.0              Introduction

The threat posed by climate change is a global problem. However the global problem gives impact to Vocational Education Training. This is because Vocational Education and Training (VET) is an important element of the nation’s education initiative. Technical and vocational education is an inescapable component of the intellectual capital required for any meaningful effort aimed at tackling the climate change issue and its associated problems. Technical and vocational education, if properly positioned, can provide tools which will support country in strengthening knowledge, skills, attitudes and the capacity for adaptation to a changing and vulnerable physical environment. The most pressing concern that faces human society during this century is the attainment of a higher level of social and human capital in the global economy through educational opportunities and support systems. The technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector has a crucial role to play in the development of human resources for future manpower requirements.

Malaysia has target to become a developed nation status in the year 2020. A developed nation with knowledge based economy needs knowledge society which is competence workforce in technology and capital. Technologies always changes and update in the global world so the new generation need skilled workforce and more comprehensive training system to increase Malaysia’s competitiveness in the global market. To produce competence workforce needs collaboration from other parties and not only government and education institution. Industry plays a huge role in education especially in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) which includes problem solving, curriculum development, study visits, scholarships, and apprenticeship training and incubation center.

It has been generally agreed that curriculum should be seen as an overall plan for instruction. It consists of a statement of aims and objectives, content in terms of theoretical knowledge, practical skills to be acquired, attitude towards work and necessary support materials to be used in curriculum presentation. Nowadays, there has been a growing awareness of the need to bring greater innovation to the process of curriculum development in TVET to cope with the changing requirements for employment created by rapid socio-economic and technological development. Ahmad, 2003, observed that the TVET in Malaysia had progressively developed into three different streams as below:

Stream or Pathway	Institutions	Workforce Preparation
1. Higher education	Universities and other institutions of higher learning, both public and private	Professional and managerial personnel such as engineers, architects, and surveyors.
2. Technical and vocational education	Polytechnics, technical colleges and (more recently) community colleges	Supervisory personnel such as technical assistants and supervisors.
3. Vocational skills training	Skills training institutions, public and private	Skilled and semi-skilled workers.

Table 1: Paraphrased and tabulated from Ahmad (2003, p.6)

Based from the Tenth Malaysia Plan in 2012, strengthening industry collaboration is important to help graduates meet the evolving requirements of industry and new economic activity. For example, because of there are increasing students dropped out of the basic education system from year 2007 to 2008, the government provide National Dual Training System (NDTS) as streamlining delivery of TVET to develop students dropped out with the right skill. The NDTS emphasizes industry involvement and collaboration because there is 70% of training must be conducted in the workplace which is in industry and it is a part of TVET curriculum. Experienced employees act as coaches to the students in the workplace. This shows that it is very important to encourage industry to collaborate with the TVET.

In addition, the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is also one of the policies that have been introduced by the government in transforming the TVET education in Malaysia. According to Zahri, 2011, although there are various form of partnership already exist in the school system but PPP through the ETP and 10MP are relatively new and more exclusive.

Program	Type of PPP	Features	Benefit
Early Child Care & Education (EECCE)	Education services	Government provide tuition fee, aid, grant & soft loan to private operators	·   Expand access to low income groups and underserved areas ·   Leverage private investment
Trust School (Basic Education)	Management services	Public schools are managed jointly by private partners and civil service school leaders	·   More autonomy to schools in return for improved student outcomes
PPP in Vocational Education	Education services & PFI	Government sponsor students in public/private vocational colleges run by private sector	·   Helps government in education transformation ·   E.g.: fill in gap for enrolment increases, provide infrastructure, expertise and industry relevance
Teacher Training	Professional services	Government contact out training for: ·   ECCE ·   Program pensiswazahan guru ·   Pre-service training	·   Brings private sector expertise in improving public education and training ·   Fills in gap in training needs
Schools meals, cleaning & security	Support services	Government contract out hostel meals, canteen operation , and school cleaning and security	·   Allows school staff to focus on teaching & learning process ·   Leverage on economies of scale

Table 2: Paraphrased and tabulated from Zahri (2011, p.6)

2.0              Malaysian Workforce Transformation

Globalization is one of the Malaysia’s strategies to transform the economic to become a high-income nation by the year 2020. This globalization strategy is not only focus on the economic aspect but also including national unity and social cohesion, political stability, quality of life, social and spiritual values, and national pride as well. It was clearly embodied in the “Malaysia: The Way Forward” which challenges the country to achieved develop nation status by year 2020. Mahathir, 1991 mentioned;

“The most important resource of any nation must be the talents, skills, creativity and will of its people. Our people are our ultimate resources.”(Mahathir, 1991)

From the citation above, it shows that the most important criteria in determining the required resources of the nation, it should start from “people” where how the organization and the curriculum design is structured in producing the talents, skills, and creativity resources. The analysis on “people” from the aspect of economic, politic and cultural is the key in designing a sustainable education structure in order to fulfill the ability and adaptability in the world of work. According to Asian Development Bank, 2004, developing countries are not ready to move towards becoming a knowledge-based economy if the numbers of low skilled workers are large. Economic growth at this stage witnesses an acceleration of demand for skills particularly at the higher levels, technicians and above and a corresponding decline in demand for unskilled or low-skilled production workers and craftsman.

Figure 1: Economic Labor Force for Industrializing Economy.

      This transformation is also been supported by Wan Seman, 2005, that indicated the number of semi skilled, skilled and highly skilled or multi skilled worker should be increased (See figure 2). He also explain that the transitional phase towards Vision 2020 is the phase to transform the developing economy of Malaysia becoming developed economy with high-quality skilled workers to support the industrializing economy. This concludes a high demand for TVET system in Malaysia.

Source: Wan Seman Wan Ahmad (2005). The New Sectors of Economic Growth: The Contributing Role of Technical and Vocational Education. Paper presented at National Technical & Vocational Education Conference, 11-12 January 2005, Crown Princess Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. 

            Therefore, in order to achieve this workforce transformation, TVET may not stand alone without collaboration from the industry and the community. It just not only in the curriculum of the TVET programmes but also required the prestige in promoting TVET in international level. 

3.0              Issue and Challenges in current TVET

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) refers to education and training that prepares persons for gainful employment. Furthermore, international competitiveness and employment creation serve as twin prerogatives in the context of development. The provision of relevant and appropriate skills represents a significant element of the overall development pathway of the country. Skills development in all technical sectors takes on an increasingly important role in virtually all dialogue of national development, more so in the advent of globalisation in an ever increasing knowledge economy.

Therefore, there are many benefit of improving community collaboration such as industry collaboration. With the support from industry, TVET institution can accomplish their goals and also can also bring benefits for the industry such as provide competence students. Industry also can offer mentoring experiences to students with expand the number of positive role models as shared their responsibility of educating students. According to Deborah (2000), industry is one of the communities which are collaborating with education institution. The issues and challenges of improving industry collaborations are:

a.   Improving communication within the industry

    Usually community such as industry is not aware with the current issue or positive things happen in TVET institution, so communication improvement within industry is important to help industry understand the value of TVET institution partnerships.

b.   Matching industry contributions with TVET institution goals

Illustrate clearly how industry can involve achieving TVET goals whereby give opportunities to students in part of prepare a work after study.

c.    Establishing clear policies about the importance of confidentiality

  The important of clear understanding about the TVET institution policies concerning confidentiality

d.   Extending the use of education institution buildings

Last but not least is provide a place for industry to hold activities in TVET institution such as field for people in industry to do sports or activity, thereby elevating the status of TVET institution within the community such as industry.

4.0            Factors Hinder Industry Participation in TVET

As most of the countries are facing with the issue of skills supply and demand mismatch, it seems like industry does not appear to be actively involved in the planning and development of TVET at the national level (Ayuba Anza, 2000). The same is true at the institutional level, with few public institutions having industry advisory bodies, industry input into curriculum development, tracer studies of graduate employment, or on-the-job training through student placements. As a result, training programs are not meeting the needs of employers.

Baba, et. all. (2011) from their research identified several factors of why the industry does not collaborate with the TVET:

a.      Training culture

Most of the companies agreed that they have high awareness in emphasizing training to train their workforce to increase their companies’ productivity and competitiveness. However, they are more intended to have in-house training instead of having training in TVET institutions.

b.      Organizational structure

In terms of specialization person in their organizational structure, most of the companies reported that they have a training section and have a training section or unit and also have a training manager or officer. 

c.       Resources

The available resources such as financial, facilities, etc. that the companies have are only enough for employee department. Some of the companies think that if they take the intent students or collaborate with the TVET institutions, they may to allocate more budgets on their resources.

d.      Policies

Most of the companies’ policies show that they are support their employees’ participation in training for human resource development instead of allows the apprentice to become as permanent worker. While some of the company who collaborated with TVET institutions, they may allow the apprentice to perform tasks in real operation same as permanent workers during the apprentice period.

e.       NDTS awareness

From the research, only few companies knew and participated in NDTS programmes. Most of the companies are not aware of NDTS programmes, hence result in their lack of participation.

5.0        Strategy to Linking Industry with TVET

        It is widely acknowledged that the quality of teachers and trainers greatly influences the effectiveness of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutes ingenerating qualified and skilled workers (UNESCO 2012). The effectiveness of any education system also strongly depends on the quality of interactions and relationships that occur between the teachers and students. Other than that, Changes in the world of work, founded upon rapid and widespread technological development, have significantly influenced the type of TVET programs that need to be offered. Furthermore, this has influenced the teaching and learning strategies employed by TVET teachers, rendering the nature of TVET unique from all other areas of teaching.

Existing systems generally tend to provide the same pre-service training preparation for TVET teachers as received by their counterparts across the wider field of teaching. Moreover, many TVET teachers enter the classroom without the benefit of an industrial background, and having often lacked the opportunity to experience the world of work. Efforts to strengthen TVET teacher education must therefore adopt a dual focus, incorporating both the pre- (training) and in-service phases (UNESCO 2012).

Therefore, according to UNESCO 2012 there are many factors success Collaboration Industry-academic in TVET which are below:

a.     Developing linkages

This approach represents Participants shared their experiences on how to initiate collaboration with industries in less industrialized countries, with many recommending the ‘knocking doors approach’. Although sometimes perceived as inefficient, this approach represents a suitable means of initiating collaborations with un-cooperative industries in developing countries. Due to the lack of industrial support for pre-service TVET teacher education, several participants agreed that including industrial experiences as a basic qualification for TVET teachers represents a difficult challenge in most developing countries. In less industrialized countries, teachers could be trained in the knowledge and skills required to build industrial links as part of their pre-service training, enabling them to foster such linkages once in-service. it is difficult to gain industrial experience, “the skill to build the schools’ linkages with industries” should be included a basic qualification for a new TVET teacher. But, some participants conveyed their successful experiences in developing linkages between teachers or TVET institutes and industrial employers.

b.     Win-win partnerships

These strategies highlighted the key to success in developing linkages between teachers and industries through its conception as a ‘win-win partnership’, whereby the TVET institute and industry gain equal benefit from the collaboration. The institute and its teachers should be able to provide suitable workers in accordance with the industry’s needs. Furthermore, they could offer the expertise required by industries through training for both entry-level employees as well as their established colleagues, located at either the TVET institutes or the companies’ premises. Another participant cited a further notion of the win-win partnership, based upon manufacturing industries’ clear need to modernize through changes in their production techniques. Under such circumstances, TVET teacher education could offer new technologies or working standards to be used in industrial production. TVET teachers can be placed as part-time employees within industries, and selected employers can be assigned as part-time teachers. The industrial experiences of TVET teachers should be updated through such participation, at least for a certain period every year.

c.      Teaching factories

The advancement of production-based education, termed in Indonesia as a teaching factory. Teachers invite industries to host their production within the TVET institute, enabling students to learn the range and level of skills involved within the production process. Furthermore, teachers learn about the standard of quality required in the market, and about industrial working culture. One participant highlighted the potential of successful teaching factories becoming established as institute-run enterprises, thus facilitating teachers to constantly improve their skill sets. However, unless such institutions can operate to meet market standards, they will fail to make profit and reflect a poor image to industries. However, the benefits of teaching factories are manifold: students can gain positive reinforcement through observing their finished products being sold on the market, and can learn soft skills of punctuality, efficiency, team work, and a valuable insight into running a small business.

6.0           CONCLUSION

The global economy demands much more from people than it has in the past. Competition is no longer just local, driving up the demands on employees, focusing employers on creating employees that are more fully engaged in the work. An effective TVET system needs to take into account not only principals and standards, but also the socio-economic conditions, informal sector needs and TVET capacity and labour market demands. Further, TVET needs to address the needs of both the rural and urban; different beliefs, religions, and customs as well as different regions of the country. While increasing access to the TVET system, there is also the need for standardized training. Though seemingly daunting, if a TVET system is adopted at a national or regional level, the cost and time needed to train instructors and trainers will be greatly reduced.

For a TVET system to become a success, it needs to have government support in the way of a continual funding stream. Whether from interna­tional groups or by utilizing a State Training Fund, this policy decision is essential to a long term effective TVET system. Without proper funding even the best TVET system cannot be sustained in a manner which supports business and growth in the country.

            While the quality of any TVET is greatly determined by the industry partners, the TVET system needs to provide access to its trainees. It is important for trainees to be able to enroll easily in training facilities. Access also involves ensuring that there are sufficient populations in close proximity to a training facility so that an adequate number of trainees are available to maximize the use of resources. An effective Technical and Vo­cational Education and Training system within a country is a critical pillar of any successful economy. It can serve as the impetus to boost the value of the nation and it’s GDP in the global marketplace. TVET success can be found anywhere in the world under many different circumstances. The key to this success is that the TVET system be adapted to a specific country. No one will be able to take what works in one country and transpose to another. There are too many variables involved in that for success. However, different pieces can be used from a variety of TVET systems that when put together, like a puzzle, any country can find success. It is a matter of finding the right pieces and using basic principles for success.

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