Rokiah Mahmud
The participants of a programme to build capacity for research in the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector were told to use their newfound skills to improve programmes to be relevant for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0).
At the end of the five-day online programme on Tuesday, Director General of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and SEAMEO Voctech Governing Board Member from The Philippines, Secretary Isidro Samson Lapeña (Pic right) said the TVET sector fully acknowledges the challenges being introduced by Industry 4.0.
“The need to further enhance the knowledge and skills of technical vocational education and training including administrators, teachers, and trainers in quantitative research is crucial, to make them better prepared for the 4th Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) environment,” he said.
“We trust that this training for TVET personnel has enhanced their capacity to understand research reports and generate ideas from research findings and recommendation to improve their teaching and learning.
“Their capacity to conduct quantitative research, focussing on survey and experimental research methods, has enhanced to write quantitative research proposals and action plans.”
The programme conducted through TVET Regional Centre SEAMEO Voctech, had participants from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Deputy Director for Professional Affairs and Research Dr Paryono, who was the course facilitator, said conducting research is quite challenging, adding that while the training has prepared the participants, more effort will be required to master the skills.
Dr William Choy from Singapore, as the participants’ representative, shared that the programme affirmed that the participants are now prepared to begin their roles as researchers in their schools and institutions.
“With the new skills and knowledge that we have acquired through the training and guidance from our speaker Dr Paryono, I hope we are all ready to initiate close partnerships and collaboration with others to conduct studies in our fields and produce quality research.”
“Although we may face many challenges such as funding and resources, I believe we can overcome these difficulties over time and foster research in our countries.”
“I truly believe our research will make a difference in education and eventually benefit our schools and students,” he said.
“We are all working towards the same goal of trying to improve the TVET education system to make it better for our home countries,” he said.
Meanwhile, Centre Director of SEAMEO Voctech Alias bin Haji Abu Bakar said research activities such as data generation and analysis may help address the issue of skills mismatch in the regional labour market, which is partly due to the unavailability of data.
He said, “We are in the process of developing and improving the Labour Market Information System or LMIS. By knowing the current and future labour market, TVET institutions can offer programmes and suitable curricula.”
