Warnborough College opened a stand at the MySkills Education Fair 2015 in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, which was held in conjunction with the WORLD TVET Conference at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching from 24-27th August.
Vice-President, Dr Julian Ng, represented Warnborough College at the Conference, which was organised by IVETA (The International Vocational and Educational Training Association). IVETA’s current president is Carmel Thompson, who is a Warnborough alumna and Council member.
Dr Julian will give a day by day account of the events. See other days here.
Day 1: 25th August, 2015
8am – Begin setting up stand.
8:30 – First presentation of the day by Datuk Dr Pang Chau Leong, head of the Department of Skills Department, Ministry of Human Resources, Malaysia. First off, stated the problems with TVET education in Malaysia and Asia in general. The problems of student perception, conflicting accreditation policies, etc.
Second presentation was by renowned academic, Prof Dr Georg Spoettl from the University of Bremen. He challenged the audience to think about how curricula and methods of instruction could convey successful performance competencies.
Wendy Perry from Adelaide talked about innovation through partnerships and collaboration in TVET, both in private and public sectors and accredited vs non-accredited provision.
11:00 – A colourful opening ceremony with speeches by the Chief Minister of Sarawak, the Chairman of the Sarawak Skills Development Centre, and our Carmel. This was followed by a welcome traditional dance in full national costume, and an amazing sand art demonstration. Her Excellency Vicki Treadell, the British High Commissioner to Malaysia gave her keynote address on the importance of TVET education and the message that one does not have to pursue the academic (i.e. university) route to achieve success (using herself as a prime example).
With the launch of the TVET conference and the MySkills Educational fair, the delegates went around looking at the different stands before breaking up for lunch.
Dr Julian Ng and various other British representatives held a private meeting with Her Excellency Vicki Treadell about Britain’s role in TVET.
14:10 – Four presentations from Dr Mohammad Naim Yaakub (Colombo Plan Staff College) who spoke about a common accreditation framework for regional integration and globalisation; former IVETA president, Dr Olga Oleynikova, who shared TVET success case studies from Russia; Concetta Fonzo from the National Centre of Euroguidance talked about matching lifelong guidance services to a 21st century skillset; and Prof Dr Wahid bin Razzaly from UTHM Malaysia presented a spirited argument for collaborative innovation.
The first day finished at 5pm.
19:30 – A gala dinner was held at the Pullman Hotel, attended by the guest of honour, His Excellency the Governor of Sarawak, Tun Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud.
