Introduction
These policy reforms were fundamentally geared towards improving the quality as well as productivity of the country’s skilled labour force, hence helping to enhance the competitive position of the Malaysian economy at large. The changes were also brought on to seek more effective coordination for the diverse vocational training activities that are carried out by both the public and private sectors in Malaysia, and to gear them towards meeting the actual needs of the Malaysian industry. The two basic thrusts of the above-said reforms are detailed as follows:
- To reinforce the adoption of Competency-Based Education/ Learning (CBE/L) principles in the vocational training system in Malaysia. This approach basically involves the shifting of emphasis from an instructor-centred approach towards a trainee-centred approach, entailing the identification of distinct and verifiable competencies that are actually required in the working world, apart from focusing on actual performances in the assessment of these competencies.
- To make the National Skills Certification System in Malaysia more flexible, accessible and user-friendly. The shift towards CBE/L has resulted in the attempts by MLVK to develop a national vocational training system that is characterised by some of the following features:
- The competencies to be achieved in training for a particular job are identified by expert workers and practitioners, which are clearly defined and spelt out in NOSS.
- The competencies are clustered around modules, which are called “duties” in NOSS, so as to enable training as well as assessment and certification to be more flexibly-packaged and undertaken.
- The assessment of competencies places emphasis on actual performance that are based on specified criteria.
- Self-paced learning that is increasingly becoming the norm in training, where trainees would progress at their own pace rather than be dictated by the instructor or group.
- Self-directed learning that is also increasingly becoming a key feature of training, where trainees would take greater responsibilities for their own learning process while instructors, would on the other hand, function as merely facilitators or resource persons.
Objective
Objectives of JPK
JPKrevolves around three objectives, namely,
- establishing a coordinated skills training system that is attuned to Malaysia’s development goals and needs
- providing the framework for the development of skills training
- certifying skills competency.
