TAIPING: The Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) will collaborate with the Human Resources Ministry’s Department of Skills Development to implement a special tourism skills programme, which enables secondary school students to obtain the Malaysian Skills Certificate (SKM) upon completion of Form Five.
Under the programme, scheduled to begin next year, selected Form Four students would be provided with theory and practical training during the school’s co-curriculum session, one day every week for two years, before they are eligible to obtain Level Three of the SKM.
NCIA chief executive officer Datuk Redza Rafiq Abdul Razak said between 25 and 30 Form Four students of the 131-year-old SM King Edward VII here would be selected for the pilot project before it is implemented nationwide.
“Through the programme, students will obtain the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia certificate and the SKM, which will enable them to work in the tourism sector after completing secondary school.
“This is the first for a programme of its kind and we are excited about the prospect,” he said here after launching the inaugural Tourism Career Club at the school recently.
Present was the school’s principal Abd Aziz Samshuddin.
Redza said the setting up of the club would also serve as a solid foundation for the programme.
The selected students, he said, could follow the theory part in school while practical training could be carried out in the numerous tourist attractions in Taiping such as Taiping Zoo, Kampung Dew and Kuala Sepetang.
Redza said the programme was in line with the government’s commitment to implementing the National Dual Training System besides promoting Taiping as a heritage tourism town and encouraging greater use of the English language.
Redza said the numerous initiatives taken by NCIA towards the development of the tourism industry were fruitful, with investments worth RM575 million for the contruction of five hotels here within the next two years.
He said the construction of the hotels would cater to the expected influx of tourists.
“This will also open up more job opportunities for locals.
“We are working on taking Taiping and Kamunting to a higher level and the locals should see this as an opportunity to partake in bigger things to come,” he said. By Audrey Dermawan