Transformation in TVET
Transformation of TVET is a determination of re-engineering the existing vocational education system to build a new system of vocational education, which can contribute to the high-income country. It was designed especially to produce a holistic human capital capable of facing any challenge, whether at the national or global and to provide a highly trained workforce to meet the country’s needs in the job market. A holistic human capital can be achieved when individual self-actualization arises. This can be done by developing technical and cognitive element in TVET. Consequently, it will built a spiritual and high morality person for life long application and implicates their physical, emotional and intellectuality.
TVET transformation focuses on employability components of its future graduates. The success of this transformation can be seen when it provides a significant contribution to the government’s agenda to make Malaysia a high-income country. Currently, the transformation of TVET under several agencies has been introduced in order to strengthen vocational and technical education system at par with others (JPP 2009; MOHE 2012; Dason et al. n.d.), while MARA and DSD had strengthen their role to cope with the challenges.
Ministry of Education led the change through the transformation program on technical and vocational schools, polytechnics and community colleges. At the school level, it will involve two aspects, namely the Basic Vocational Education program (BVE) and Vocational Colleges (VC). Basic Vocational Education (BVE) was introduced as a stream of education in lower secondary school system from Form 1 to Form 3. The implementation of the pilot program was conducted in 15 selected schools starting 2012. The curriculum implies active participation in a direct and practical way with the subject trained (hands-on), with reference to the National Occupational Skills Standard (NOSS). Students will go through three levels of competencies within 3 years to enable them to get Malaysian Skills Certificate (MSC) Level 2 issued by the Department of Skills Development (DSD), Ministry of Human Resources. This transformation would provide opportunities to students who are hands-on and interested in TVET and are academically weak and it provides greater career opportunities to the students to avoid dropping out of the current mainstream education.
As BVE focused on lower secondary school, VC provides an opportunity to the upper secondary school students that have interest in TVET stream with the diverse courses offered at the colleges. This means the feeder for VC will come through the BVE. The most important aspect can be seen when the VC leavers directly being awarded TVET diploma after 2 years training that meet the MSC Level 3 and 4 rather than they have to complete their training in the skills training institutes such as ITI and MARA vocational institutes in order to get the same level of certification.
At the higher education level, polytechnic transformation roadmap aims to develop human resources with emphasis on creativity and innovation. The concept of transformation include to be a leading institution for TVET education, produce employable graduates and build the positive perception towards the polytechnics. Aspects covered include governance, process design, delivery system, curriculum development, quality assurance, the development of competent instructors, quality resources, continuous innovation and recognition by Malaysia Qualification Agency (MQA).Three indicators has been identified to the success of Polytechnic Transformation. First, the polytechnics become the main TVET institutions at the regional level. Second, at least 85% of polytechnic graduates are employed or continue to further their study within six months after graduation. Finally, 50 percent of school leavers (MCE) make polytechnic as their first education pathway.
Another TVET providers that involve in the transformation program is community colleges. The government has strengthened the action plans which focused on high income by increasing skill-oriented programs to produce competent workforce, retrain unskilled workers, and upskill the trainers. In addition, community colleges will intensify collaboration with other TVET related agencies and private sector in the development of the curriculum as well as the knowledge and technology transfer through apprenticeship. Moreover, the number of graduates from entrepreneurship program will be increased and the public will be assured that the government will provide conducive learning environment in order to provide quality services to the local community. Upon successful implementation of this transformation program, it is expected to contribute 35% of skilled workforce that will offer a maximum impact on the economic development of local communities with knowledge-based skills, creativity, and innovation.
To cope with the drastical change of several TVET institutions, a new system of governance is required to stay relevant and responsive. Therefore, regulating agencies need for strategic alignment with these changes. For example, the Council of Trust (MARA) has materialized their Strategic Plan 2011-2015 that enshrine comprehensively in MARA Transformation Strategic Framework 2011-2020. MARA Strategic Plan has some substances. One of them is to make students achieve the objectives of a global human capital with integrity and innovation. Secondly, the education was transformed to create business leaders, entrepreneurs and professional who can compete globally as well as producing excellent graduates in TVET. The third substance is to strengthen the education platform from secondary level of the college and pre-university to provide a strong foundation to send students abroad for undergraduate and also postgraduate program. Finally, the reinforcement of TVET education starting from basic certificate level to the diploma and advanced diploma level will be carried out through a bridging program which handled by MARA University.
The second regulating TVET agency is DSD. Most of the initiatives taken by DSD are following the directive and suggestion stated in the Tenth Malaysia Plan. The government has recognized the need to create comprehensive TVET system to meet the needs of the labor market and to enhance economic growth. The 10th Malaysia Plan has been clearly declared that four strategies will be implemented during the plan period. The perception towards TVET will be improved to attract more trainees, highly effective TVET instructors will be developed, the quality of TVET curriculum will be upgraded and harmonized in line with the industry requirement, and finally the delivery of TVET will be streamlined. Pang (2011) and Mohamad (2011) have underlined a few initiatives to streamline the implementation of TVET in Malaysia. DSD has been appointed as a single agency to harmonize the TVET standards and curriculum, accreditation body for skills sector and have to ensure TVET offering matches employability requirement by appointing and manage the Industry Lead Body (ILB). The ILB will proactively ensure the relevance of NOSS. Malaysian Skills Certificate (MSC) issued by DSD will be adopted as the national certification for TVET. Since MSC are not fully recognized by the higher education institutions and Board of Engineers Malaysia, a Board of Technologist Malaysia (MBOT) will be established. It will not only accelerate the recognition of MSC but also will cover the Diploma and Degree in Technology offered by other higher learning institutions. To assist providers in attracting students, Skills Malaysia Invite was established. This program will encourage international students to enroll in various selected TVET institutions. MQA and DSD also will put an effort to standardize pathway from TVET institutes to university by clarifying educational and professional pathway. A summary of transformation program and initiatives by respective agencies are shown in Table 1 below:
Table 1: Some of transformation focus and initiatives by respective TVET agencies
Ministry | Implementing agency / Regulating body | Transformation focus / initiatives |
Ministry of Education | Technical and Vocational school |
|
Ministry of Education (previously Ministry of Higher Education) | Polytechnic |
|
Ministry of Education (previously Ministry of Higher Education) | Community college |
|
Ministry of Rural and Regional Development | MARA |
|
Ministry of Human Resources | DSD |
|
Current governance issues
Since the 1st Malaysia Plan until the newer 10th Malaysia Plan, the TVET sector was divided into two terms i.e. education and training. The term ‘education’ is being used by the Ministry of Education which is responsible for the polytechnics, vocational colleges, technical schools, and community colleges while the term ‘training’ is being used by various ministries such as the Ministry of Human Resources, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Rural and Regional Development and the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry. Each ministry own and operate a varying number of institutes for example ITIs, National Youth Skills Institutes (IKBN), MARA vocational institutes, and private skills training institutions. Another description was also made by Pang (2011) and Ahmad Othman (2003) who highlighted that TVET system in Malaysia were divided into three streams i.e. higher education, technical and vocational education and vocational skills training. The separation of terms and the highly fragmented administration could results in poor coordination and duplication of responsibilities and also will boost up the government funding in the TVET sector.
In terms of accreditation, there was another accreditation body besides DSD in Malaysian education system. DSD, which is mentioned earlier, performs accreditation for the skills sector while Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), a division within Ministry of Education performs accreditation for the vocational and technical sector as well as academic sector. The existing of the two bodies with separate standards and process for accreditation resulted in multiple qualification systems. Segregation between skills and technical and vocational sectors by the Malaysian Qualification Framework (MQF) creating confusion among students and the employers on the value of the certificate (Pang Chau Leong 2011). Overall, the unique fragmented TVET landscape including multiple qualification systems, with no central or single agency to coordinate the system will make each provider act in silo thereby creating limited synchronization and harmonization of TVET sector. Although there was a platform to coordinate the delivery system through National Skills Coordination Council (MPKK2) (JPK 2012a), the diverse vision/purpose in offering TVET education will create a wide difference in the policy decision and training delivery.
Harmonizing the governance issues
Different ministries manage their own TVET institutions. There are diverse standards of performance with limited authority and responsibility. Each ministry also has different qualification system with non-uniform curriculum and standards, thereby creating confusion among students and employers in terms of the certificates issued. In certain circumstances, the certificate is offered at a very basic level with little value added and sometimes not relevant to industry needs. While efforts have been made to establish a collaboration between ministries but different policy often limits the flexibility and mobility of students to a higher level across institutes under different ministries.
The Tenth Malaysia Plan has outlined three important issues concerning to TVET education as follows:
- DSD has been appointed as a single agency to upgrade and harmonize the TVET standards and curriculum. It also will become an accreditation body for skills sector;
- Malaysia Skills Certificate (MSC) issued by DSD will be adopted as the national certification for TVET; and
- Pathway from TVET institutes to university will be standardized by clarifying educational and professional pathway.
However, when the transformation plan was executed at the agency level, as mentioned in 3.1, many aspects were not fully accounted for. Ministries administer plans without clear insight or understanding of other ministries’ transformation plans except for the BVE and VC. Furthermore, DSD was not involved with the direction and planning of relevant agencies. This is due to the dissimilar policies and requirements of each other. Should proper transformation plan for each ministry or agency consider the recommendations proposed in the Tenth Malaysia Plan. In terms of harmonizing the TVET standards and curriculum, the DSD still do not have the authority to design the same standard and curriculum for all TVET providers. Each ministry still operates independently with different standards for capacity planning and curriculum development. This will result in duplication of responsibilities in calibrating learning outcomes for TVET sector. Regarding the single accreditation body for skills sector, although both skills and technical and vocational sectors fall under the TVET sector, they still be separated within the MQF. Meaning that, the accreditation system still applies to similar TVET offerings. Skills sector still be administered by the DSD and those in technical and vocationalsector administered by the MQA. While DSD administers the skills sectors, there is still training providers who prefer not to be accredited by the DSD. For example, MARA vocational institutes have their own plan to contribute to the production of TVET certification. This will limit the collaboration and sharing of best practices between the agencies.
In terms of national TVET certification, adoption of MSC issued by DSD as the national certification is still unfulfilled. The original government intention is to see various ministries and institutes offer their own certificates which comply with standards set out in NOSS. Unfortunately each agency and ministry, are still comfortable and prefer to maintain their own certification. Only the technical schools and vocational colleges took the initiative to produce TVET certificates that meets the MSC requirements. Finally, the transformation program across ministries are still not having clear educational pathways. For example, students are unable to transfer credits between different institutes under different ministries and only limited qualifications can be used to enter higher education, resulting difficulties for students to have a clear understanding of their educational pathways. So, there is a need to enhance the governance and delivery of the MQF to increase clarity of the educational pathway within ministries.