BUTTERWORTH: Institutions of higher learning (IPT) have been urged to create new programmes to produce highly skilled manpower to raise the country’s competitiveness at the global level.
Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy said Malaysia, especially Penang, is facing a shortage of skilled manpower such as engineers and technicians to meet the demand of international factories investing in the state.
According to him, he had just visited an Industrial Training Institute (ILP) in Penang and found several ILPs were facing problems of financial constraint to create new programmes.
“The field of education plays an important role to provide skilled manpower, so I hope all IPTs will provide new programmes in line with the current era so that no parties will be left behind,” he told reporters after visiting Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Mak Mandin, here today.
He said the Penang government was prepared to assist any ILPs to realise their roles to produce suitable manpower in line with Industrial Revolution 4.0.
He said education now was unlike the past when students furthered their education to higher levels to obtain a degree.
“In the past, after form five, most student are not sure where to go or drop out of school but now they need to be exposed to technical and vocational education and training (TVET),” he said.
Earlier, Ramasamy, who is also the State Economic Planning, Education, Human Capital Development and Science, Technology and Innovation Committee chairman, officiated the new SJKT Mak Mandin building, which cost RM4.2 million.
Ramasamy said the new building was completed two years ago, but had been unable to obtain the Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) which caused the building to be unoccupied.
He said the three-storey building, which has 12 classrooms, a resource centre , a counselling room, a treatment room and a canteen could now be used.
“The new building will enable to school to operate on one session with an enrolment of 840 pupils including pre-school classes.”
He added that the state government was prepared to assist the school to develop a piece of land next to the school as a football field. — Bernama
