STOPPING LOANS TO PTPK CAUSING GRIEF
IREFER to the decision by the government to halt loan disbursements to the Skills Development Fund Corporation (PTPK) for private skills training following cases of misappropriation of funds and quota allocation during the previous administration.
While the misappropriation of funds is being investigated by the authorities, there are more than 350 private training providers who are in the dark about their programmes.
Most depend on the funds to provide study loans for students ineligible for other recognised institutions, such as the National Youth Skills Institute and Kuala Lumpur Industrial Training Institute.
I understand that the siphoning of funds is a serious offence and warrants an investigation, but I am dismayed with the review process as it affecting livelihoods, jobs and hopes for a better life.
As an employee at one of the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) centres, I have seen the struggles of TVET operators, including stellar performers that are highly ranked.
This is affecting the morale of trainers and administrative staff.
What is even more demoralising is the unrest among parents and students whose study grants were approved last year, but are now stuck indefinitely.
Most of these students come from poor backgrounds and need monthly allowances to pay for their accommodation and food.
As a provider, we can delay the recruitment of new students, but what about existing students?
There was a similar problem in the middle of last year.
The general election was one of the happiest moments of my life as I believed that a change in administration will result in a new dawn for the public and private education industries.
We were looking forward to a smoother, efficient and transparent governance that helps build a strong TVET community to support small- and medium-scale enterprises, and one that empowers trainees towards better career placement, jobs with equitable salary, talent and technology advancements as well as productivity gain.
We hope the new government would provide a respite to this situation.
Malaysia is losing RM15 billion annually, no thanks to its heavy dependence on foreign labour.
If measures to train locals for blue-collar employment are taken for granted due to funding excuses, we will continue to see an influx of foreign workers and reduced opportunities for Malaysians.
As mentioned earlier, most of our trainees come from the bottom 40 per cent category and are stereotyped for their attitudes and personalities.
Very few complete their higher education.
The skills training programme (Sijil Kemahiran Malaysia) is a viable alternative for them to have good lives as they complete their diploma and advanced diploma levels.
The private training providers also go into rural or identified areas to conduct seminars and awareness camp aigns fo r trainees.
Trainees lack of self-esteem and ignorance make them vulnerable to social ills.
As training providers, we have to look into character-building programmes to inject confidence and competence in them, along with skills.
Besides looking into students’ welfare, as staff, we, too, have mouths to feed and bills to pay.
Most of us have young families and commitments, and with growing cost of living, we cannot afford to lose our jobs.
The halting of funds causes great despair among the providers, staff, students and their families.
The government should meet providers and find a solution to this matter.
Mismanagement and graft have been a perennial issue in government and private entities for so long now, but so are courses for improvement via change of policy and governance.
There should be an intervention that protects the interest of training providers and more importantly, their beneficiaries.