TVET
SUSTAINABILITY IN BUILDING NATION
Noriadah
binti Abdul Karim MP101406
Shahmila
binti Ismail MP101475
Nur
Hamizah binti Abd Rahim MP1016654
1.0 Introduction
Technical
and vocational education and training (TVET) refers to education and training
that prepares persons for gainful employment (Finch and Crunkilton 1999). In
other words, TVET refers to deliberate interventions to bring about learning
which would make people more productive in designated areas of economic
activity. Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)
also considered as a master key that can alleviate poverty, promote peace,
conserve the environment, and raise the quality of life for all. Learning for
work, citizenship and a sustainable future is bringing together on responsibility
of education, of the world of work, and of a variety of stakeholders in the
socio-economic environment (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2006). With
this, TVET has to re-orient its agenda for action so as to continually provide
scientific and technical skills in relevant and responsive programs, and
consequentially develop a new generation of human resources.
The success of TVET in
any developing country can be considered a key indicator of the country‘s advancement
in development. Any country that evolved into a technological advanced one,
TVET must have played an active and vital role as skilled manpower would have
been required, also to enable its sustainability. TVET
has the potential to enhance human capabilities and enlarge peoples’ choices.
2.0 Sustainable
development
Sustainability in definition as circumstances
changed or preserved as the original (Kamus Dewan, 2002), the concept of
sustainability is an integral part of the discourse of international discussion. According to Pavlova (2009), the term sustainable
development or sustainable development has a range of meanings and definitions
rely on an organization. Similarly,
Huckle (1996) which states have different definitions of sustainable
development are dependent on ideology, knowledge, values and philosophies
held. Sustainability is a paradigm of
thinking the future to further enhance the quality of life or life upgrades
(Ruhizan & Norzaini, 2005). Thus, the combination of all the meaning or
definition, the concept of sustainability of TVET is a necessary so that it
remains or protected in the context of the school and in higher education. The
concept of sustainability is also somewhat equivalent to the educational goals
of enhancing the quality of life vocational.
In literature, there is broad agreement
on the definition of sustainable development.
However, sustainable development has different meaning in different sociology-economic context and has different dimensions in various areas of human
activity. Sustainable Development (SD)
refers to a mode of human development in which resource
use aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met
not only in the present, but also for generations to come ( Brundtland, 1987). Brundtland’s definition of
sustainable
development has contributed to a diverse spectrum of definition and
interpretation. According
to UNESCO, sustainable development is a culturally-directed search for a
dynamic balance in the relationships between social, economic, and cultural
systems, a balance that seeks to promote social equity (UNESCO-UNEVO, 2004c. p.
8).
The 21st
century is an era of knowledge, information and communication and is signaling
the need for a new human-centered development paradigm; therefore, educational
policies and programs around the world are taking on board the new vocabulary
of sustainable development and acknowledging the need to all sectors of the
educational system. Higher Education Institution
(HEI) such universities and polytechnics have a major role to play by
introducing sustainable development teaching into the curriculum across the
spectrum of courses offered. Nowadays, TVET has been seriously considered
as an integral component of lifelong learning.
Therefore TVET must play the master key that can alleviate poverty,
promote peace, conserve the environment, improve the quality of life for all
and help achieve sustainable development ( UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2004).
3.0 TVET and
Education Sustainability
There are many experts and researchers
concluded that TVET, as an integral component of lifelong learning, has a
crucial role to play in this new era as an effective tool to realize the
objectives of an environmentally sound sustainable development. Wehrmeyer and
Chenoweth (2006) also concluded that the implementation of sustainable
development by society in part depends upon individuals being informed and
educated about the interaction of environmental, social and economic issues,
together with their relevance to individuals’ every day activities and work. In particular, the Technical and Vocational Education
Training (TVET) has been identified as a vehicle for the implementation of
education for sustainable development.
TVET curricula and delivery systems need to be
realigned to meet those challenges. TVET is now poised and better positioned to
engage innovations using the accumulated knowledge and experiences. New kind of
competencies acquires to be addressed and inculcate in the minds of future
workforce which TVET has big stake and role to play. In line with the positive change in TVET,
while describing the strategies core of the 10th Malaysian plan, the
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak, also spoke about the plans to
improve the quality of students and mainstreaming technical and vocational
education (TVET). In developed countries
such as Germany, technical and vocational education and training vocational be
among the preferred choices for students as it provides good career prospects
(Ivan, 2007). Instead in Malaysia, it is
still seen as a last resort because of limited career prospects. However, since the presentation of Tenth Malaysian Plan (10MP), the government
through the ministry of education and drastic Malaysia moves towards the
direction of a pragmatic nature to uplift the status of vocational education as
a key player in the future of education sector.
Education
for Sustainable Development allows every human being to acquire the knowledge,
skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future.
Education for Sustainable Development means including key sustainable
development issues into teaching and learning; for example, climate change,
disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable
consumption. It also requires participatory teaching and learning methods that
motivate and empower learners to change their behaviour and take action for
sustainable development. Education for Sustainable Development consequently
promotes competencies like critical thinking, imagining future scenarios and
making decisions in a collaborative way. Rashid & Nasir (2003), describe
the Malaysian education and training system have highlighted demarcations
between: (a) Tertiary
or higher education in universities and other higher educational
institutions; (b) Technical and
vocational education undertaken largely in the formal school system
under the Ministry of Education; and (c) Post-secondary TVET, including skills
training, undertaken through the skills stream of the secondary
vocational schools but predominantly by public and private skills training
institutions. Other studies also have
highlighted that skills training based on National Occupational Skills Standards (NOSS)
had increasingly become a significant component of the national
system (Pang, 2008; 2010).
The
Malaysian government has been dedicated to reform the education system and to
place Malaysia into a world-class education hub. This is due to rapidly growing
economy and urgent requirements for qualified workers, to face an education
system which no longer satisfies the demands. The education system especially
in TVET must yield K-workers to push Malaysia into the K-economy. K-workers are
essential for the country to make investments in technology and workplace
requirements which will contribute to sustainable growth.
4.0 Transformation TVET in
Malaysia
Attracting
foreign investments is one of the ways for Malaysia to realize its quest to
achieve developed nation status by the year 2020. It goes without saying that
among the determining factors that foreign investors look at is that of the
skills and technical competencies of the local workforce. The Government is
very much aware that the future of the country does not solely depend on
educated personnel, but on having a large pool of skilled workers that can
handle the rapidly changing world of work.
As such,
through a multitude of government, semi-government and private agencies, a
large number of technical and vocational development program are introduced in
schools, universities, and training center. According to the Malaysian Economic
Planning Unit (EPU), under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, technical and vocational
government schools are allocated approximately RM 629.2 million in development
expenditure. This is in addition to the many incentives – directed both to
youths and the industry - which the Government introduces to encourage
vocational training. For example, companies that take part in certain
apprenticeship program qualify for tax incentives, whilst the apprentice is
assured employment, is eligible for reimbursement of the training costs, and is
given insurance protection, among many others. Still, technical and vocational
education and training (TVET) in this country has its own challenges, as
described briefly in this paper.
5.0 TVET Providers in Malaysia
There are numerous TVET providers in
Malaysia. The Government is the main provider, having several ministries and
agencies involved. These are:
- Ministry of Education (TVET is offered in secondary schools called ‘technical’ (or ‘vocational’) secondary schools. In 1990, the number of enrolment is 13,448 covering ten major occupational groupings).
- Ministry of Higher Education (TVET is offered in polytechnics and community colleges. In addition, vocationaliation of higher education is initiated in universities earmarked as ‘technical universities’).
- Ministry of Human Resource and Development (under which the Department of Skills Development, National Vocational Training Council (NVTC), Industrial Training Institutes, etc, are placed. The NVTC is established in 1989 by reorganizing the National Industrial Training & Certification Board set up in 1971. The Council has established 53 trade standards in a variety of occupational groupings and tested 15,379 candidates in 1990).
- Ministry of Youth and Sports (under which the National Youth Skills Institute is placed).
- Ministry of Community Development.
- State governments (under which institutions such as Terengganu Advanced Technical Institute (TATI), Skills Training Centre, etc, are placed).
- Private providers – for example under MARA, there are the Institut Kemahiran MARA, and Pusat Giat MARA, among others. There is also the Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), under which the German-Malaysia Institute, British-Malaysia Institute, etc, are placed. In addition, there are institutions such as the YWCA that offers vocational training to the public.
In 2005, there were 21
Industrial Training Institutes (ITI), 14 National Youth Skills Institutes
(NYSI), three Advanced Technology Institutes (ADTEC), and 162 Pusat Giat
MARA (skills training institutes under the MARA). All of these offer a
variety of training and vocational-type of education
Table 1: Student
Enrolment in Public Education Institutions, 2000-2010
6.0 Needs in Technical and Vocational
Education and Training System in Malaysia
As a middle
income country, Malaysia economy is an investment-economic growth. It will concentrate
on the manufacturing and the outsources service export. It will have
production of high value-added goods and services. The technology driven in
Malaysia is imported technologies. The competition based mainly on efficiency
in producing standard products. High quality is technology advanced, and the
flexible production becomes more important, but the technology and design is
largely still imported.
The
challenges in this investment-economic growth are to attract foreign direct investment
and to link the national economy with the international production systems and
the global economy. Due to these challenges, a universal secondary education,
deepening on vocational and technical education, particularly at post secondary
technician levels should be arranged. It is also needed to up-skill the labor
force through life-long learning to retool and update skills. The broaden
skills require is also including teamwork, communications and problem-solving
(Schwab et al., 2002).
This transformation is also been
supported by Wan Seman (2005) that indicated the number of semiskilled, skilled
and highly skilled or multi-skilled worker should be increased (Figure2). 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.
7.0 Conclusion
Policies in
general education have paid attention to sustainability in several areas,
particularly ecology, environment, conservation of natural resources and to
citizenship education, to enable learners to contribute and create a
sustainable future. Policies must be reoriented to reshape TVET to address the
emerging concerns of sustainability. Linking TVET to the economic,
environmental, and social aspects of sustainability has to become the critical
concern of policy-makers and curriculum developers and should be extended to
the entirety of general education. It is also now acknowledged that teacher
education systems have to be geared to ‘a trans-disciplinary, holistic
approach, which emphasizes the importance of interrelatedness of the
environment as a whole and the interdependence of parts’
Population aging has a significant
impact on the Malaysia policy for national human resources development (which
aims to achieve efficient workforce development, distribution, and
utilization). In a rapidly aging society where the productive labor force is
expected to decrease, it becomes more and more important to establish a strong
foundation for sustainable economic growth. A key solution is to reform
traditional ways of thinking about the development of vocational competency
(especially that of women and middle-aged and older populations) by encouraging
individuals to resume or continue to participate in work. This will help to
maintain the sustainability and growth of the labor market and the social
safety nets. A new system of vocational competency development can help early retirees
and the middle-old or older unemployed to restart their economic activities by
making it easier for them to change their occupation or re-gain employment. In
so doing, the cost of social security will be reduced.
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