KUALA LUMPUR: Student participation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training programmes has reached 53.9% and is expected to rise to 70% by the end of the 13th Malaysia Plan.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi stated this increase was driven by high graduate employability rates and better salary prospects, especially for students from rural areas.
He noted that many secondary school leavers now choose TVET as their main pathway to further their studies.
“Three years ago, 190,000 students enrolled in TVET, and now the number has risen to 439,000 across 1,368 TVET institutions nationwide,” he said.
Ahmad Zahid described this as a game-changing shift in transforming the education ecosystem away from conventional pathways.
He revealed that the employability rate for graduates from TVET institutions under the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development stood at 98.7%.
The Construction Industry Development Board’s Akademi Binaan Malaysia recorded a 100% employability rate for its graduates.
“Although the national minimum wage is RM1,700, graduates holding the Malaysian Skills Certificate Level 3 under TVET receive premium salaries of around RM2,500,” he added.
He emphasised that this is why the government prioritises TVET, with a focus on students in rural areas.
The government will continue to make TVET one of the main fields driving the transformation of Malaysia’s youth workforce ecosystem.
Ahmad Zahid disclosed that the TVET allocation distributed across 12 ministries was RM6.8 billion when he began chairing the National TVET Council.
“A year later, it increased to RM7.5 billion, and next year, as announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, it will rise further to RM7.9 billion,” he said.
He concluded that this increasing allocation shows the government is taking TVET very seriously. – Bernama
