Nurul Izzah heads task force to perk up TVET

PUTRAJAYA: A special Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) task force, chaired by Nurul Izzah Anwar, has been set up.

Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said Nurul Izzah was chosen because she had shown an interest in TVET and how it could help the youth gain employment or become entrepreneurs.

“The task force will have to pre- pare a report to strengthen and improve TVET,” he said, adding that it had less than a year to complete its work.

Nurul Izzah, who is PKR vice-president and Permatang Pauh MP, said she hoped to set the timeline and key performance indicators for the task force by next week, following discussions with relevant stakeholders.

“As I am new, I should listen to those with more experience in TVET. If needed, we’ll bulldoze through some of the best suggestions,” she added.

On The Star’s exclusive report yesterday that the Pendidikan Vokasional Menengah Atas (PVMA) programme had been put on hold, Dr Maszlee said teachers who taught TVET courses were being upskilled so that they could become better educators.

He said all public TVET training institution teachers were being sent for training in batches to ensure they had Level Four and Five Malaysian Skills Certificate (SKM) certification.

On the 5,504 students who were left in a bind after finishing school last year without the SKM, Dr Maszlee said it was decided that they be given Recognition of Prior Achievement and were expected to be certified with Level Two of SKM by the end of this year.

On a separate matter, Dr Maszlee said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had ordered all ministers and deputy ministers to no longer issue support letters for any party that was trying to obtain tenders or proposals.

“This is to ensure good governance because this practice was rampant in previous dealings,” he added.

He said he would not be appointing people from political parties to hold the positions of vice-chancellors and deputy vice-chancellors in higher education institutions.

“We will ensure that only those qualified will be chosen.”