Sarawak Skills, Soppoa explore areas of collaboration
KUCHING: Sarawak Skills Development Centre (Sarawak Skills) and Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (Soppoa) held a roundtable discussion recently to discuss potential collaboration for the current and future training needs of Sarawak oil palm industry.
Among the areas of collaboration is the plantation assistant programme which is an employee development programme. It will cover a broad range of functional areas, in particular focussing on sharpening field operation management skills for the supervisor level, said Soppoa chief executive officer Dr Felix Moh in a statement recently.
In addition, the programme would also incorporate elements on business management roles including work management, resource management, and more, which aims to prepare participants for further career advancement, he added.
Another area of collaboration, he said, is the skills training programme that targets school leavers.
“The objective of this programme is very similar to vocational education that imparts the skills and knowledge needed to work in a given occupation. However, the difference is that students will be placed at the participating companies and ‘work’ like normal employees for a period of time while training is conducted,” explained Moh.
The advantage of this mode of training is that the students will receive allowances and other employment benefits from the participating company throughout the period of training, he said.
Upon completion of the training, the students not only will be awarded with relevant certificates, but also have the opportunity to continue employment with the participating company directly, he added.
For the time being, Sarawak Skills is focusing on enrolling students for field operations such as for fruit harvesting and collection, and upkeep activities like manuring and weeding.