Kulasegaran: Skills training institutes should be under one ministry
IPOH: All skills training institutes that are under various ministries should be streamlined and placed under a single ministry to prevent the overlapping of functions and waste, said Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran.
Kulasegaran said this could ensure allocations were used effectively.
He said his ministry would prepare a proposal and the matter would be discussed by the cabinet.
“We need to stop the overlapping of duties and competition between the ministries involved. We are one family. I will ask the cabinet for this to be streamlined.
“We know that wastage occurs (because of the lack of coordination among skills training institutes).
“This is similar to the dissolution of the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) by the cabinet, where all of SPAD’s functions are placed under the Transport Ministry.
“We do not want to see any more ministry within ministries,” he said after a working visit to the Ipoh Industrial Training Institute in Jelapang here yesterday.
At present, several ministries have their own skills training institutes, among them Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) under the Rural and Regional Development Ministry.
Other ministries include the Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Ministry, Education Ministry, Human Resources Ministry, and Youth and Sports Ministry.
Kulasegaran said skills training institutes nationwide should develop collaborations with non-Malay industries.
The institutes, he said, also had to find ways to draw greater participation and maximise the number of participants as the main reason behind their lack of popularity among nonMalays was the language of delivery.
“If we view sectors that are dominated by the Chinese, they place great emphasis on the use of Mandarin and Cantonese.
“I think we need to have a mindset shift.
“The language of tomorrow is Mandarin and we have to accept this fact. As such, collaborations between these institutes and Chinese-owned companies are important so that we can reach the targeted groups.
“The majority of the country’s sectors are controlled by the Chinese, so we should work with these companies.”