There is room for more students at ILPs, says Kula

IPOH: The Human Resources Ministry hopes to get more school leavers to enrol in the underutilised Industrial Training Institutes (ILP) nationwide.

Minister M. Kulasegaran said the enrolment at the 32 ILPs was still not up to the mark despite the facility having churned out good students in the past.

And all those who graduated from the ILPs were employed, he said.

“Even law students don’t always get jobs when they complete their studies,” he said.

Kulasegaran said the ILPs should be more accessible and open to the public in order to attract a higher enrolment.

“We must change the perception that joining such institutes would mean that you would be dirtying your hands, or that it had ‘no standard’ compared to other learning institutions.

“We must understand that not all students have an interest to pursue academic goals.

“So, schools must come in to play a role in identifying students according to their skills,” he said after meeting with industry players at ILP Ipoh here yesterday.

Kulasegaran pointed out that the Ipoh facility only had 491 students despite having a capacity for 900.

“So, I want more schools to engage with the 32 ILPs nationwide on how best we can utilise them and reach out to the masses on the opportunities available,” he added.

Kulasegaran said that it was equally important to reach out to Chinese language schools, as the enrolment from their students was low.

These schools should realise that students who were not performing well in their studies could enrol at the ILPs.

“I just learnt that every year in the month of August, educational institutions in Taiwan could attract some 1,000 Perak students annually.

“So my question here is why this cannot be done by the local ILPs?” he asked.

Even law students don’t always get jobs when they complete p their studies. M. Kulasegaran