TVET Imperative To Asean Economic Development, Says New Zealand

PETALING JAYA (Selangor, Malaysia), May 25 (Bernama) -- Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is imperative and absolutely critical to ASEAN economic development, says New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission Chief Executive, Tim Fowler. He said as Malaysia recognised TVET in order to produce a skilled vocational profession as a key to Malaysia's development from a middle-to-high-income nation, New Zealand highly supported every effort, especially in education cooperation among ASEAN member countries. "If you want economy that succeeds, you need an economy that can build infrastructure...and that means having TVET is absolutely critical. "What we have seen today is a series of variable work from different countries...that's the work that we all are doing together," Fowler told reporters after the 4th East Asia Summit Senior Officials Meeting on Education here Tuesday. The meeting is part of the 9th ASEAN Education Ministers Meeting (9th ASED) held here after Malaysia was appointed chairman of ASEAN Education for two years from 2016. The 9th ASED is scheduled to be officiated by Malaysia's Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid on Wednesday. According to Fowler, the main things to ensure TVET success in ASEAN was to look into the quality assurance framework between ASEAN member countries and its strategic partners. --BERNAMA