HANOI, Oct 27 (Bernama) — Malaysia still lacks potential skilled manpower to meet the country’s demand, according to Human Resources deputy minister Datuk Seri Ismail Abdul Muttalib.
He said only 10 per cent of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) holders had opted to pursue technical and vocational skills.
“We are emphasising more on academic excellence presently, while in developed countries such as South Korea and Australia, more than 40 per cent of the youths are in the technical and vocational field.
“This shows that we are lagging in terms of producing skilled manpower as opposed to our country’s demand in its aspirations to achieve high income status by 2020,” he told Bernama.
He is visiting the Malaysian contingent comprising 51 youths from skills institutes in Malaysia who are participating in the 10th Asean Skills Competition at the National Convention Centre here today.
The competition began on Oct 19 and would end on Wednesday.
Ismail said skilled workers in Malaysia made up only around 28 to 29 per cent of the overall manpower, lower than the 33 per cent and 50 per cent target for 2015 and 2020 respectively.
In this regard, the Education Ministry has raised its target of technical and vocational students to 20 per cent, he said.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam hosted a dinner for contingent officials at a hotel here last night. Also present was Malaysia’s Ambassador to Vietnam Datuk Azmil Zabidi.
— BERNAMA
