PETALING JAYA: Leaders of Malaysian industries are working with the government to develop a skills standard and syllabus that are of international quality, says Department of Skills Development director-general Nidzam Kamarulzaman.

These industry players, known as Industry Lead Bodies (ILB), want to help ensure Malaysia’s TVET is on par with developed nations like Australia and Canada, he said.

“In the next two years, over 30 major TVET (Technical and Vocational Education Training) ILBs will come together to create their own skills standards based on the practices of developed countries,” he said.

He said they would work together to capitalise on their strengths as leading companies in their respective fields, and come up with a syllabus for TVET training centres under the skills department.

“They assist the government departments in doing so because they are the experts, they would know better,” he said in an interview.

Some of the companies involved, according to Nidzam, are Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association and the Malaysian Association of Hotels.

Nidzam also urged local industries to play a bigger role.

“Come forward to assist the government to overcome prevalent mismatches in skills gap. There is only so much we can do ourselves,” he said.

Since TVET training institutes serve to provide skilled manpower as required by the industry, the industry players should thus visit these institutes and identify the problems, and then work on it with the government.

“They can contribute their expertise and resources, such as sharing equipment and keeping institutes updated on what is relevant to their current needs, rather than having centres blindly churn out graduates, leading to duplication of programmes, oversupply of graduates and mismatch in skills, among other problems.

“This way, we work towards producing graduates according to market needs,” he said.

Nidzam said training agencies under the skills department that prescribe to the System Persijilan Kemahiran Malaysia (SPKM) are guided by industry-set standards known as the National Occupational Skills Standard (NOSS).

The SPKM oversees the accreditation and certification of skills training institutes.

He said NOSS is regularly reviewed by the skills department, based on technological changes.

Some of the agencies involved include Institut Latihan Perindustrian, Giat Mara, Federation of JPK Accredited Centres and Institut Kemahiran Tinggi Belia Negara.