GEORGE TOWN, Sept 19 – The signing ceremony of the German Dual Vocational Training Programme in Penang between the State Government and the Penang Skills and Development Centre PSDC was held at PSDC here on Friday morning. This was the first ever German dual vocational education of learn and work in Malaysia which in Penang.
Also were present Deputy Minister I, YB. Dato’ Haji Mohd. Rashid bin Hasnon; Penang State Tourism Development & Culture, YB. Danny Law Heng Kiang; Member of Pulau Pinang State Executive Council, YB. Dr. Afif bin Bahardin; State Financial Officer, YB. Dato’ Haji Mokhtar bin Mohd. Jait and MP of Bukit Bendera, YB. Zairil Khir Johari.
The State Financial Officer, Dato’ Hj. Mokhtar bin Mohd Jait, the CEO of PSDC, Mr Muhamed Ali Hajah Mydin, the Management Council Members of PSDC, the representatives of host companies of the new program (names), the programme coordinators as well as the first batch of 22 students participating in the German Dual Vocational Training in Penang. After their course of around 40 months, they are guaranteed work at the sponsor companies.
Of the 22 students who participating the German Dual Vocational Training in Penang are included 20 Malays and 2 Indians. Meanwhile, the state government also hopes to have more Malaysians to join this programme because we are alike to sponsor more of such students.
The State Government has recently launched the Penang Future Foundation Scholarship scheme with RM 20 million, where talented Malaysians are given scholarships based on merit. The only condition is that these scholars serve their bond in Penang for a stated period either in the public or the private sector.
This represents a separate prong to increasing our talent pool in Penang. With this initiative, the State Government was happily to financially support this industry-driven programme for Penang-based companies with a sponsorship of more than RM2 million.
“The sponsorship is open to all companies located in Penang, whether multinational corporations (MNCs) and small and medium entities (SMEs), who send their Malaysian employees for the German Dual Vocational Training Programme. So far we have American and German companies participating and hope to see more,” said Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
“The German Dual Vocational Training Programme is a valuable upskilling programme that is much sought after. An average of 23% of German trainees in the training occupations have university entrance qualifications. In some training occupations such as bank clerk or IT specialist was also the percentage of people with university entrance qualifications is even as high as 50 to 60%. In other words in Germany, you may need a university degree to qualify for training,” he said.
The very nature of the dual system of vocational training means that cooperation between the two learning venues such as industry and vocational school with plays a key role in work-based training. The curricula for in-company and vocational school training are therefore developed jointly.
“We hope this will reinforce Penang’s contribution as an exporter of RM18 billion or 22% of Malaysia’s balance of trade in 2014. In the same time, the State Government is aware that up skilling the local workforce will affect local businesses. Hence, it should not be concentrated in the multinational companies only,” said CM Lim.
“I am glad to hear that about 60% of PSDC’s members are Small and Medium Sized Entities (SMEs).With this financial sponsorship, I hope more SMEs will invest in upskilling their existing employees or in attracting talents. In the first stage, the GDVT program covers the courses for Diploma and Advanced Diploma in the field of Mechatronics. Talent is universal but opportunity is not. The state government hopes this initiative will provide our talents with the opportunity,” he added.
