Colleges told to offer more courses
Published on: Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: Colleges need to look beyond popular courses to offer the ones lesser known but which provide higher chances of employability for their graduates. Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun, who is the State minister-in-charge of education, said courses should meet the demand of the industry, no matter how rare or difficult for students to cope with. "I think this is the way forward for the education system in this country. We need to look beyond the present education policy to improve our education field. ADVERTISEMENT "Focus on the courses that seem difficult but easy to find work with and not the other way around," he said after launching the Almacrest International College's fifth convocation here on Monday.Also present were the Almacrest Group Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Yen and Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UniRazak) Vice Chancellor Professor Datuk Seri Mohd Zabid Abdul Rashid, here. He cited for example the high demand for tax experts, and colleges only produce half the manpower required by the industry, that is around 14,000 people at present. Masidi said colleges should venture into these areas of studies to assist the industry and in the hope of producing graduates that will be 'useful to the economy.' ADVERTISEMENT Towards this end, Masidi said colleges need to be genuine and introduce courses that offer value for money to their students, so many Sabahans will no longer opt to study abroad. This way they do not only save time but also money, he said.
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Masidi said he had come across several local colleges that treat their students like 'cash cows' by recruiting as many students as they want to rake in the profit from study loans including, government loans. Earlier, Masidi handed the scrolls of 95 diploma graduates from the Almacrest International College and later witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the college and UniRazak and the appointment of three external advisers for Almacrest. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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It is understood the MoU will pave the way for graduates from the private college to advance their studies at UniRazak via credit transfer, saving them time and money. Almacrest also appointed Sabah Backpackers Association President Richie Lee, Tourism and Culture Ministry Sabah Office Director Ag Ahmad Zaki and Tourism Malaysia Director Sani Sham Ahmad as external advisers.