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Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sub-sector reform in the Philippines, Malaysia, Mongolia and Myanmar is a priority in their national development agendas. Mismatching of skills with the labour market is a considerable obstacle in attempts to increase the employment rates. Therefore the TVET systems in each country must address quality training to meet labour market demands if employment is to improve. As well, each country is interested in entrepreneurship as a means to improve the economy and alleviate poverty. Each country's TVET system is discussed and the paper concludes that efforts in carrying out systematic research in improving TVET skills and enhancing entrepreneurship is needed.

The volume containing this paper is indexed at TD/TNC 100.801; individual papers may be found from TD/TNC 100.802 to TD/TNC 100.839. Show less

This paper looks at how the production of competent technicians for industry has been a challenge for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in many countries. The issues emerging in TVET in four countries (India, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines) against the backdrop of the global financial crisis are discussed and the challenges are identified. A brief examination of the TVET system in each country is given, intended to highlight the issues and challenges. Short and long term recommendations are provided. Show less

The Ninth Malaysia Plan, which is one step on the way to achieve Vision 2020, features a separate section on technical and vocational education and training (TVET). It assigns responsibilities for TVET teacher education at the various levels to specific institutions such as polytechnics and community colleges. Malaysia will also face significant challenge as the country is set to become industrialized. Strategic knowledge and skill have to be the basic form of capital to position Malaysia towards industrialization. The education system especially in TVET must yield [knowledge workers] K-workers to push Malaysia into the [knowledge economy] K-economy. The Malaysian government has been dedicated to reforming the education system and to placing Malaysia into a world-class education hub. One critical strategy taken by the government is to implement the National Dual Training System (NDTS). Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) has been the key institution that strives to fulfil the national objective. UTHM offers and supplies qualified TVET professionals at the academic levels of Bachelor, Master, and PhD programs to enrich the human capital of the nation. Due to the active international involvement and excellence recognition of UTHM as a TVET provider, a cross country research project involving UTHM from Malaysia, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) from Spain, the Institute Technik und Bildung (ITB), Universitat Bremen from Germany and Vocational Education Development Centre (VEDC) Malang, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) Bandung and Technical Education Development Centre (TEDC) Bandung from Indonesia, have agreed to partnership cooperation on a research project funded by the European Union Asia Link project headed by ITB. The research is focused on the development of transnational standards of teacher training, their accreditation as well as the development of curricula. To strengthen the international collaboration, UTHM has taken an innovative initiative to work closely with the Universitat Bremen from Germany to structure a German-Malaysian PhD program. The cooperative program will facilitate the reorganization of Malaysia’s professional training scheme by benchmarking the German’s work-based TVET system. Currently, 18 candidates have already enrolled into the program pursuing their doctorate academic advancement. As the Prime Minister of Malaysia put forward in his speech ‘We will need more thought-leaders, creators and innovators to achieve our aspirations’, these PhD graduates will definitely become the backbone to our NDTS transformation. The paper will highlight the existence, process and implementation of the innovative German-Malaysia Joint PhD program.

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OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) provides the first internationally comparative perspective on the conditions of teaching and learning, based on data from over 70,000 teachers and school principals who represent lower secondary teachers in the 23 participating countries. TALIS examines important aspects of professional development; teacher beliefs, attitudes and practices; teacher appraisal and feedback; and school leadership. TALIS looks at these factors through the eyes of teachers and school principals. This innovative approach was chosen in order to examine how the intended school and teacher policies of education systems are actually perceived and implemented in schools and classrooms, recognising that the best intentions will only yield results if effectively and consistently implemented in the frontline. The objective aim is to identify barriers to effective instruction. This report focuses on teachers appraisal and feedback, their professional development, the teaching practices and beliefs and school leadership. The report presents quantitative information for policymakers. Countries participating include: Australia, Austria, Belgium (Flemish Community), Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey.

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Talent development in [Thai] and Malaysian service firms has become a prioritized human resource management practice as these societies move toward knowledge-based economies. This paper discusses talent management in the social, organizational and managerial context of firms in Thailand and Malaysia, and argues that such structures often counterbalance investments made in talent development. The paper concludes that new human resource management practices do not produce a difference per se. It is the mindset and attitude of various managers that makes the difference. The learning for practitioners is that they need to adapt existing social and organizational structures to their new human resource management practices. The paper is based mainly on qualitative interviews with human resource managers from Thai and Malaysian service firms.

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This article discusses human capital development through the seven soft skills elements which comprise communication skills, critical thinking and problem solving skills, team work, lifelong learning and information management skills, entrepreneurship skills, ethics, and professional moral and leadership skills. The Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia recently announced that the said soft skills are to be introduced to undergraduates of Institutes of Higher Learning in Malaysia. Suggestions on how these elements are to be incorporated in the undergraduates program are also put forward.

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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of entrepreneurship education in Malaysia and to evaluate its effectiveness and limitations. Design/methodology/approach - Primary data are collected to reveal students' perceptions of the effectiveness of the entrepreneurship teaching and their knowledge about entrepreneurship. Findings - The results show that entrepreneurship education in Malaysia is not matching students' skill expectations with skill acquisition. The findings also indicate that the level of understanding on 'what is entrepreneurship' is still low among the respondents selected in this paper. Research limitations/implications - The paper only concerns students' perceptions towards the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education in their respective institutions. Results from this paper are limited in terms of their ability to demonstrate 'actual' outcomes of entrepreneurship education. Practical implications - The paper provides an important exploratory analysis of the state of entrepreneurship education in Malaysia to enable further research to be taken in the area of entrepreneurship education. The findings provide valuable insight on effective teaching methodologies in the area of entrepreneurship education. Originality/value - The paper expands the framework of Morris et al., Drucker, and Gorman et al. to provide a basis to improve the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education in Malaysia.

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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework for measuring public sector managers' career success. Design/methodology/approach - The theoretical foundation used in this study is social cognitive career theory. To conduct a literature search, several keywords were identified, i.e. career success, objective and subjective career success, managers, managerial career development and social cognitive career theory. Several electronic databases available in the university's library, such as Emerald, EBSCOHost, SAGE, Science Direct and Blackwell Synergy, were used to search for resources. Literature includes sources written in both English and Malay. Findings - The four factors that have predictive potential on managers' career success are individual-related factors, organizational-related factors, managerial competencies-related factors, and the person-environment fit factor. Career success should be operationalized using both objective and subjective career success. Research limitations/implications - The study was exploratory, based on a literature review. Empirical study is needed to examine the predictive potential of the four key factors (i.e. individual-related factors, organizational-related factors, managerial competencies-related factors, and person-environment fit factor) for public sector managers' career success. Practical implications - Strengthening the [human resource development] HRD framework through organizational development, personnel training and development and career development may develop and unleash individual potential which leads to positive career outcomes (objective and subjective career success). Originality/value - The research constructs a theoretical framework which outlines the predictive potential of four key factors on public sector managers' career success. The four key factors can be developed through HRD practices.

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Malaysia is a fast developing country and to support the growth of Malaysia industrial sector Malaysia needs a highly skilled workforce. To fulfill this need Malaysia has developed many vocational and technical training institutes. Currently there are approximately 194 technical-vocational institutions and there is a plan to increase this number during the next five year plan. There are 90 technical schools which provide the vocational courses at secondary school level. The technical and vocational education (TVE) in Malaysia started with the enforcement of Razak Report 1956 and Education Ordinance 1957. Other education reports and education memorandum such as Rahman Talib Report and Education Act 1961, Mahathir Report 1979, Cabinet Memorandum 1995, 1998 and 1999 had further sustained the policies, system, curriculum and direction of technical and vocational education. Although the theoretical debate continues, it has been generally that curriculum should be seen as an overall plan for instruction. It consists of a statement of aims and objectives of content in terms of theoretical knowledge, practical skills to be required, attitude towards work and necessary support materials to be used in its presentation. Improving curriculum content has long been regarded as a core-component of [technical and vocational education and training] TVET. To produce the good quality of TVET in the school level the focus is the teachers who have specialized in their field. Many of the teaching staff who were employed possessed necessary technical skills but did not have more opportunity to undertake professional training. For TVE in Malaysia there is a shortage of qualified technical and vocational teachers. Most teachers are recruited directly after they graduated from universities and collages based on their academic qualifications and do not have industrial work experience. At the same time qualified personnel with work experience are not willing to become teachers due to the unattractive salary scheme. This paper is a review of the structure and performance of the TVE teachers in Malaysia. It consists of development of curriculum, program design, the nature of learning materials and stakeholders' involvement. Teacher training in TVE can be defined as having the main role in providing the skill to fulfill the school level TVE needs. Retraining is defined as upgrading of existing skill or acquiring a new one. Upgrading skills can be by accelerating - by doing and joining program in other TVET institution or center. The performance of teachers in TVE is important to make the technical school in Malaysia the selected school for parents to send their children and choose the TVE field as a career path. This paper is a discussion of the issues in training and retraining needs, strategies introduced to overcome the teaching staff shortage as well as curriculum relevancy. Improving the quality of teachers in TVET is related to raising the quality of technical and vocational education.

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This paper documented the efforts made by the Ministry of Education, Malaysia (MoE) in preparing teachers who taught a Principles of Accounting subject to be ready to integrate [information and communication technology] ICT, operationalised through the ASSETBase simulation courseware in their classroom teaching and learning. Pre- and immediate post-training results conducted from August 2005 to October 2006 showed that teachers were ready to embark upon the integration of the courseware into their classroom teaching and learning. Follow-up research in June 2007 indicated that the teachers were equally enthusiastic about integrating ICT into the accounting subject but for various reasons they could not implement the integration as expected. The findings suggest that teachers' positive attitude to ICT integration in accounting education is not enough reason to ensure successful implementation. Other measures are needed. In view of such a discovery, several intervention programs were and would be carried out as further discussed critically in this paper.

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