Akhbar :The Sun Daily (News) | Tarikh : 28/10/2014
HANOI: Malaysia still lacks potential skilled manpower to meet the country's demand, said Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Abdul Muttalib.
He said only 10% of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) holders had opted to pursue technical and vocational skills.
"We are emphasising more on academic excellence, while in developed countries such as South Korea and Australia, more than 40% 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 said.
He was visiting the Malaysian contingent comprising 51 youths from skills institutes in Malaysia who are participating in the 10th Asean Skills Competition, which began on Oct 19 and ends tomorrow, at the National Convention Centre, here today.
Ismail said skilled workers in Malaysia made up only around 28% of the overall manpower, lower than the 33% and 50% target for 2015 and 2020 respectively.
In this regard, the Education Ministry has raised its target of technical and vocational students to 20%, he said. – Bernama