IPOH, June 9 ― The Human Resources Ministry is planning to attract more school leavers to Industrial Training Institutes (ILP) by changing their perception of the under-utilised skills training programme.

Its minister M. Kulasegaaran said many students who finished their secondary school education were reluctant to join ILP, thinking the programme is “not up to the mark”. 

Kulasegaran, however, pointed out that most of the students who passed through the ILP doors managed to find employment after graduating.

“Students think the ILPs are not up to the mark and they don’t want to dirty their hands,” Kulasegaran told a press conference after meeting with Perak industry stakeholders at the Ipoh Industrial Training Institute here.

“They don’t realise that almost all the ILP students get jobs. In comparison, even law students don’t always get jobs when they finish their studies,” added the minister ― who was also a lawyer himself.

At the moment, Kulasegaran said ILPs nationwide were under-utilised, pointing out that the Ipoh facility only had 491 students despite having the capacity for 900.

Kulasegaran said he wants more schools to engage with the 32 ILPs nationwide, adding that he would discuss this with the Education Ministry.

He said it was important to reach out to Chinese language schools, which had been left out of the conversation so far.

“We want to tell them that students who are not performing well in their academic studies can come to the ILPs,” Kulasegaran said.

“Before this when we wanted schools to engage with the ILPs, we were told that there were no allocations.”

“I will discuss allocations for travel and other expenses with the Education Ministry, so these engagements can take place,” he added.

Kulasegaran added that he wanted to make ILPs more accessible and open to the public, in order to attract higher enrolment.

He said students and parents alike needed to know the opportunities offered by the training institutes.

Kulasegaran noted that education institutes in Taiwan could attract around 1,000 Perak students a year, and questioned why this could not be done by local ILPs.

“Imagine, the students pay to study there for three years. We must able to sell our institutes as well and change the mindset,” he said.

https://www.malaymail.com/s/1640203/human-resources-ministry-targeting-students-for-industrial-training