Abang Johari (second left) hands over a certificate to a graduate. Abang Johari is accompanied by Abdul Aziz (left). — Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi.

KUCHING: The roles and cooperation of industries in the state should be in line with the direction of Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET), opines Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.

Abang Johari added that the relationship between industries with accredited education and training centres such as Sarawak Skills Development Centre (PPKS) could be seen as aiding the efforts towards empowering TVET.

“With such synergistic relationship, our TVET graduates will possess more intact technical skills in ensuring higher marketability for graduates.

“Thus, Sarawak Skills, as one of the TVET-mover institutes, has a responsibility in producing individuals with high quality skills in technical and vocational fields in the state,” he said in his speech during the 22nd Sarawak Skills/iCats (International College of Advanced Technology) Convocation at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) today.

Abang Johari also said that graduates should be ready and constantly improve their skills, particularly in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

“With the existence of digital technology, I believe more job opportunities will be made available and I hope all the graduates here will stay ready and constantly improve your skills, especially in ICT.

“There are seven digital economy sectors in the state; namely agriculture, Industry Revolution 4.0 manufacturing, tourism, Smart Cities, digital health, e-commerce and digital government. I believe that PPKS has managed to pique the interest of students in pursuing entrepreneurship, especially as technical entrepreneurs or technopreneurship,” he added.

The state government, Abang Johari said, had also undertaken various initiatives to ensure that Sarawak could realise digital economy as the state’s economic backbone by ensuring that the community could be involved in this mainstream.

“Sarawak needs to venture into the digital economy without fear, and full of excitement,” he said.

Meanwhile, PPKS chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Abdul Aziz Husain during his welcoming speech said that PPKS should embrace the Industrial Revolution 4.0 to continue to be relevant to its students and industries.

“The world today is in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 era, and in this era, digital technological applications are given priority in all sectors, including the Technical Education sector.

“Thus, PPKS should embrace Industrial Revolution 4.0 to continue to be relevant for our students and industries. In other words, PPKS needs to produce Industrial Revolution 4.0 future-proof graduates come 2030 in line with the state government’s aspirations to become a developed state by 2030,” Abdul Aziz said.

As many as 780 graduates, comprising of 284 Malaysian Skills Certificate recipients, 87 Malaysian Skills Diploma recipients, 14 Electrical and Electronics Engineering Certificate recipients, 33 Vocational Training Operations graduates, seven graduates of Bachelor in Software Engineering and 357 iCats Diploma graduates in various fields received their certificates.

Also present at the convocation were Education, Science and Technological Research Miniter Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong and PPKS executive director Hallman Sabri.