MELAKA: Just like in Germany, a generational change is needed to reject the national perception that Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is a second choice or a second-class education, especially among the young people.
Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali said among efforts needed is to increase the positive perception towards the technical field or a TVET career, with the cooperation of various parties including parents, youth and industry.
"In developed countries, the number of students enrolling in vocational and technical stream is large, for example in Germany where TVET is regarded as the main education route and up to 70 percent of pre-university students choose to enter the vocational stream," he said.
He said the social media should also be utilised as a platform to promote TVET, such as displaying the real-life success and income of TVET graduates and alumni, thus making it an attractive career of choice for the new generation.
"I believe our country is not lagging behind and we are still on the right track because we have four Malaysian Technical University Networks (MTUN) including Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) which is the main pulse of the country in producing world-class TVET graduates," he said after launching the UTeM-TVET Ambassador programme at a ceremony which was also attended by Higher Education Deputy Minister Datuk Mohammad Yusof Apdal and UTeM Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Massila Kamalrudin.
Meanwhile, Sulaiman said the university needs to be an agent of the community in empowering TVET, as implemented by UTeM through the TVET Ambassador programme which implements various high-impact technical projects that have a positive impact on the community.
"I was informed that this UTeM-TVET Ambassador programme is a share-and-transfer technology initiative that can benefit the local community by implementing community activities based on IPT (higher education) TVET fields such as civil engineering, electrical, automotive and others.
"Through this programme, I believe the community will be closer to TVET and build a positive perception towards a TVET career in this country," he said.
In the meantime, Massila said so far, the UTeM-TVET Ambassador programme has been implemented at several venues in Melaka including Pantai Kundor, Tanjung Bidara and Ayer Molek involving eight faculties, with four of them engaging in the engineering faculty.
She said the UTeM-TVET Ambassador project was implemented among staff and students, individually or in groups, and it was part of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives towards society.
"Among the projects developed are Smart Aquaponics System with Internet of Things (IoT) in Tanjung Bidara, UTeM Digital Business in Ayer Molek and Computer Maintenance and Cyber Security Network and Innovation in Pantai Kundor. - Bernama