AS Malaysia progresses towards developed-nation status by 2020, the demand for high-quality and skilled graduates to meet the challenges of one of the fastest growing economies in Asia has never been greater.
To meet the goal, the government has allocated RM1.2 billion for vocational and technical transformation programmes (TVET) to upgrade and produce highly-skilled workers to meet industries’ needs.
The success of such an endeavour, however, depends on commitment and cooperation between education hubs and the industries.
Polytechnic Education Council chairman and industrialist Tan Sri Azman Shah Haron said the educational sector and industries must work hand in glove to ensure future graduates were ready to embrace the challenges, technologies and businesses the country faced.
“The country needs graduates who fulfil the required skill sets , in order for them to contribute to the industry. This comes at a time when the world is globalised. The competition is no longer between ourselves. We are competing with the rest of the world.
“The industry is responsible for providing feedback on what is needed by the market for the educational hubs to provide skill sets.
“The advisory committee has been discussing and gathering data from observations and experience.
“We have identified the industries with potential for Malaysian graduates, such as animation.”
Azman, who is also Malaysian Employers Federation president, said for the cooperation between industries and educational hubs to be more effective, there was a need for policy reforms that corresponded to the demands of the economy and industries.
“The move to upgrade the skills of graduates to meet the needs of the industries is timely.
“We can move forward faster and the economy will benefit further if we reform our policies.
“There should be a review of policies in conducting businesses, in industry, trade and economy to ensure these policies do not become redundant and, in turn, provide a hurdle for change to take place.
“Decisions are made quicker now, conferences are conducted online and people are connected from all over the world through a click of the mouse. Deals are made faster than we can imagine, so the policies need to respond to these changes.
“We cannot afford to rely on old policies to make changes because others are doing it and we must respond to the challenge.”
Azman said the polytechnic, as the provider of skilled and middle-level workers, should be revamped and turned into a statutory body.
He said this would allow polytechnics to generate better graduates with freedom to dictate policies, education and administration.
“Polytechnics produce more than 35,000 graduates a year and ever and since its inception in 1969, they have produced more than 430,000 graduates.
“I was told their target for 2020 is to produce more than 1.3 million new skilled and middle-level manpower. With that, the government and the industries should do what is required of them to propel this growth in human capital.
“The polytechnic and community college department with the polytechnic education council and our 20
representatives from industries are working together to draft the proposal to turn polytechnics into statutory
bodies.
“We are discussing and gathering input from industry leaders, educationists and others and we expect the first draft to be completed by 2016.”
Azman said there were 33 polytechnics with 92,000 students.
“We are not producing enough graduates for critical sectors, such as construction and services, and the reform in policies and polytechnic education should be made a priority for us to move forward.”