MOE-SSPC collaboration to help mould students for industrialized Sabah – Yusof
Education and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob believes the Education Ministry (MoE) and Sabah Shell Petroleum Co Ltd (SSPC) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will help mould Kolej Vokasional (KV) Likas students for the future industrialized Sabah.
Dr Yusof said the MoE-SSPC MoU, inked at KV Likas here yesterday, would produce graduates with the intelligence, knowledge and skills that would match the requirements of existing industries and reduce the unemployed numbers in Sabah.
“They can be assured to have skills needed by the industry. Of course, the industry also contributes through sponsorship and the industry will certainly hire them as workers,” he stressed after the signing ceremony.
“We have a way to avoid mismatch, which means training that is not required by the industry. Right now we have matching.
“What we have today is just one of the thousands of MoUs that we will undertake under the petroleum downstream industry,” he said, adding other opportunities for collaboration include scaffolding too.
The minister said collaboration such as this would also provide an opportunity for the private sector companies to train the manpower with the expertise that are specifically needed by them.
“Now you are sure that the money you invest in is worth it. That means you are sure you can get the right person that you want,” he said.
“Just give the directives to the training institution on what you want them (students) to be, what kind of experts you need. This is what we want. With this cooperation, it saves time, saves cost too,” he added.
Yusof said Sabah, which churns out around 50,000 to 60,000 school leavers, had about 56,000 SPM and STPM school leavers and only 50% went for their tertiary education.
So, he said the Sabah government was very serious in bidding goodbye to the days when parents and students were oblivious of the right courses to undertake that would help graduates to be employed in the future.