KUALA LUMPUR: The lack of support from parents is one of the main reasons why children avoid Technical Vocational and Education Training (TVET) courses.
Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran (pix) said the ministry has been trying to convince parents of the importance of TVET.
“We have been informing parents that 94% of TVET graduates have jobs while those with university degrees remain jobless.
“The ministry wants parents to convince their children to join TVET after Form 5 if they have no plans so as to avoid the ‘lepak’ culture from returning,“ Kulasegaran said.
The ministry had appointed Yusry Abdul Halim of KRU as a TVET icon to attract youngsters to join the programme. Yusry is one of TVET graduates and he is hoped to be able to convince youngsters to join their courses.
Kulasegaran said at present 25% of the courses have yet to be taken up while there are some courses that were over subcribed, citing the example of courses at the Japan-Malaysia Technical Institute which has 1,000 places but has 6,000 applicants.
He said in Malaysia TVET institutions have some of the latest technology.
Kulasegaran said the ministry wants to ensure that many Malaysians are upskilled to help them earn higher salaries.
“To meet this aim the ministry had informed all institutions to ensure they remain open after 5pm.
”Workers will be allowed to upskill themselves after working hours as they can attend courses from 5.30pm to 11pm,“ he said.
Kulasegaran said this will allow people who cannot take time off, to upskill themselves on their own time.
