The negative perception that Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is a second choice for weak students compared with the conventional academic field should be eliminated by parents, said Deputy Human Resources Minister Mahfuz Omar.

He said parents should place more confidence and support on their children taking TVET as this field is capable of producing the local manpower needed by the industry and nation to face Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0).

“The government sees it (TVET) as a necessity. Those who hold diplomas in skills are eligible to continue their education at degree level through Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (MTUN) network project.

“The move is seen as giving confidence to the people in TVET,” he told a question and answer session at Dewan Rakyat here today.

Mahfuz was replying a supplementary question by Ismail Abd Muttalib (BN-Maran) on the statistics of TVET student intake which is still low compared to developed countries such as Germany, Holland and Australia and wanted to know what are the measures taken towards empowering the field.

To empower TVET, Mahfuz said via a 2025 plan under the National Skills Development Council which involved six ministries, his ministry is also focusing on TVET Tahfiz programme as the first step to extend skills training to young Tahfiz students.

“We want to ensure Tahfiz students also have a future to enter the employment sector,” he said.

Mahfuz said he had held a meeting with Kedah State Islamic Religious Council recently which was attended by 70 Tahfiz centre representatives to discuss the government’s plan for Tahfiz TVET.

In a related development, the Human Resource Ministry assisted 41,000 graduates to gain employment in various sectors from January to October this year, said Mahfuz.

He said his ministry's employment gateway Jobs Malaysia played an instrumental role in securing employment for them.

“Most graduates seek jobs via Jobs Malaysia. As of October, there were 290,898 active job seekers on its registry, with 210,868 of them graduates.

“However, they are not jobless graduates but who registered for the first time to find work, and those seeking upward mobility,” he said during the oral Question-and-Answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was replying to a question from Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz (PH-Tanah Merah) who wanted an update on the employment of graduates.

- Bernama