SEA TVET mobility programme enables students to gain knowledge abroad

PUTRAJAYA: Community college students are now able to participate in international student exchange programme, that is normally organised at university level, through the Southeast Asia Technical and Vocational Education (SEA TVET) International Mobility programme.
Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching said six students and two lecturers from the Langkawi Tourism Academy @ Kolej Komuniti Langkawi had been selected to participate in the programme this year at the Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna (RMUTL), Thailand.
She said both institutions were selected based on their respective expertise in hospitality and tourism sector.
"The students and lecturers will attend a two-week programme at RMUTL to gain knowledge, share their best practices and getting exposure to Thai culture, which they will later share with their friends in Malaysia.
"The collaboration with RMUTL is reciprocal and in the future RMUTL will also send its students and lecturers to Langkawi under this programme," she told reporters during the flagging off the programme's participants here today.
Yap said the student exchange programme, coordinated by the Community College Education Department (JPKK), would be held from time to time until 2019 involving other areas including electronics, mechatronics and manufacturing; agriculture and fisheries; as well as construction.
She said community colleges could also choose their preferred overseas institutions to cooperate with under the programme, subject to JPKK's approval.
The SEA TVET International Mobility Programme was one of the internalisation efforts of TVET by member countries of Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (Seameo) through curriculum harmonisation; exchange of students and staff; industrial attachment; and resource sharing, she said.
Meanwhile, one of the participants, Amizal Abdul Ghani, 18, said he was proud to be selected and determined to gain as much knowledge as possible in Thai culinary arts.
"In terms of language I feel there should be no problem because I am fluent in Thai as my mother came from Thailand," he said.
Another lucky student, Tan Shin Yan, 18, said she was excited to learn about the country's hospitality that was famous for its civility culture. — Bernama