There is room to learn from the experiences of other countries, industry insiders said.
Kumaran of Malaysian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry said Singapore “stands out as a regional benchmark” with a “strong system linking technical education with workplace learning and industry participation”.
One example is the Work-Study Diploma offered by Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education (ITE), a post-secondary institution. Under the programme, employers deliver about 70 to 80 per cent of the curriculum through on-the-job training, while students remain employees of the partner companies and work towards their diploma.
Unlike Malaysia’s TVET model which involved 12 ministries, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has overall responsibility for post-secondary vocational training in Singapore.
“Although the structure and model is quite similar, the engagement with industries is much closer and stronger than in Malaysia,” said Wan of Taylor’s University, adding that Malaysia’s TVET system is “more complex” than Singapore’s.
Outside Southeast Asia, Germany offers an example of employers taking direct responsibility for vocational training.
Under its dual vocational training system, apprentices usually divide their time between companies and vocational schools, with employers directly involved in developing the workers they want to hire.
“The German dual system works for one fundamental reason: (The) industry does not merely advise on training, it runs it,” said Kumaran of the Malaysian-German Chamber.
But Kumaran noted Germany’s model “rests on decades of strong employer associations, unions and cultural buy-in”, and said the dual model only works when the “workplace side is as strong as the classroom side”.
For Malaysia, “the key question now is delivery: How effectively we translate that ambition and funding into training that is genuinely driven by industry mindset and produces the skills employers actually need,” he said.
