PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia, as a middle-income nation, posted only a 15% enrolment of upper-secondary students into Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions, said the World Bank.

China has an enrolment of 40% while South Korea, as a high income nation, has about 35%, said Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Hou Kok Chung of the report.

"There is a prevailing mindset among most that higher education is only, or at least obtained through a university education, thus resulting in a biased-thinking towards TVET.

"Such a mindset to consider TVET as second or third class education should be corrected and the ministry is actively adressing the bias," he said.

He was speaking at the launch of the World Bank Malaysia Higher Education Seminar 2012: Putting Higher Education to Work: Skills and Research for Growth in East Asia, here.

Dr Hou said TVET had several advantages such as to shape the skill set of the next generation workers, provide students with readily employable skills and help make up student undersupply in some fields.

The World Bank highlighted the need to maintain a balanced tertiary education sector among TVET institutions in the field of social sciences, science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Dr Hou, in citing the report, said in some economies, labour force surveys suggested that firms often preferred workers with TVET skills.

"A high share of TVET graduates are, for instance, employed as managers and professionals.

"They even command higher salaries than managers and professionals with university degrees," he added.

In the Philippines and Indonesia, he said, the report found that post-secondary TVET institutions had higher labour market relevance and adaptability than universities.

"The World Bank studies confirm the relevance and importance of TVET in an economy and hope it will jolt Malaysian parents and youths to relook at the prospects ahead with TVET and consider with confidence an education in the TVET field," he added. BERNAMA

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