Safety management practices in the Malaysia Technical And Vocational Education Training (TVET)

For many years, the value of safety management practice has been the subject of research attention in many sectors in Malaysia in order to achieve a positive workplace safety climate. The practice of safety management among accredited centers in the education sector, however, has hardly been examined. This study was therefore conducted in Johor, Malaysia, to investigate the elements of the safety management practices in the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET). This research included seven participants consisting of safety and health (SH) coordinators from each accredited TVET center in Johor, Malaysia. Via interview data collection, this study used the full qualitative approach. The outcome of the thematic analysis showed that there are ten key elements of safety management practices that have become factors among accredited TVET centers in Johor, namely management commitment, safety policy, safety committee, instructor involvement, safety rules and procedure, safety training, safety audit, risk management, communication and feedback and also safety promotion. The accredited center is advised to pay attention to these ten elements in order to improve safety management practices in the TVET sector

Exploring the Theoretical Gap on Knowledge Work of Knowledge and Skilled Workers in TVET Practices: A Literature Review

This article presents a literature review on the theoretical gap of knowledge work between knowledge and skilled workers. There are two primary reasons for conducting this literature review namely the lack of literature on knowledge work for skilled workers and, the poor understanding of their knowledge requirements. Although the requirements for the Industry 4.0 skilled-workers, knowledge work, and innovation are widely discussed in the literature for white-collar jobs, there are scarcely mentioned for blue-collar jobs. Also, the theoretical gap of knowledge between skilled workers and knowledge workers has not been yet addressed, leading to poor public perception of the role of knowledge work in TVET skilled workers. The findings from this literature review may provide insights into the understanding of the theoretical gap and the role of knowledge work for skilled workers and knowledge workers. Seventy-seven articles were reviewed, and inductive thematic analysis was conducted with ATLAS.ti resulting in three major themes, namely, ‘qualification and employment requirement’, ‘management control’, and ‘theoretical and contextual perspectives. The findings indicate that there are differences in knowledge work identified in two groups of workers, nonetheless, support the conclusion that knowledge works are equally crucial for skilled workers to optimise their role. The findings of this study imply that the role of the two groups of workers could not be described interchangeably within a similar working-class and these findings could be used to create clear distinction in the definition and descriptions of work practices of knowledge and skilled workers within the TVET sectors

Implementation of Skilled Training Programs at Vocational College: A View of the Instructors’ Perspectives

The vocational colleges of Malaysia have been running several engineering related programs to certify their students with Malaysian Skills Certificate, Malaysian Vocational Diploma and Malaysian Vocational Certificate. The aim of these programs is to provide competent skilled and knowledge workers for the needs of the local industries in order to foster national development towards achieving developed nation status. To ensure the success of these programs, instructors are expected to be able to conduct training and master the engineering education process. This study was conducted to identify vocational college instructors’ views on the implementation of the skill training programs in the aspects of curriculum, infrastructure and industrial training. A total of 116 technical instructors in the fields of engineering skills namely Welding Technology, Automotive Technology, Electrical Technology, Refrigeration and Air conditioning, Electronic Technology, Industrial Machining and Construction Technology participated in this research. The data were analysed to determine the average mean score of the measured variables. Findings showed that the average mean score for curriculum and industrial training aspects were found to be at high level, while moderate level was obtained for the aspect of infrastructure. This finding implies that professional development programs are less crucial compared to facilities required to run the skill training programs. This issue needs to be addressed by the vocational colleges’ management and government to ensure successful implementation of these skilled training program at college level.

Creative methods in qualitative interviews with higher education students: a graph sketching and photo-card activity

In education research, qualitative research methods have gained attention because they allow the investigation of several people-related issues that cannot be investigated using quantitative methods. Though qualitative and quantitative research methods lies on separate continuum, they all aimed at identifying problems using different approach. This study explains the usefulness of using creative method qualitative approaches in an effort to obtain quality data for the study. The purpose of this paper is to introduce readers with some of the creative methods that can be applied, which is not only can actively engage informants during the research process but also to more fully aware of their perceptions, experiences, feelings and life events. Data were collected among 24 final year engineering student using semi-structured interview, integrated with two creative activities namely the use of graph sketching activity and photo-card activity. The purpose of these activities are to deepening the exploration activities and understandings of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors that influence the retention and success of engineering students at higher education institutions. Data were analysed using a thematic coding process and ATLAS.ti software was used to assist the coding process. Using the creative methods in this study have been proved to be an effective strategy to extract quality data from the interview process where an intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of the students can be explained and expanded in more detailed

Influence of Cognitive, Affective, and Conative Elements in Promoting Engineering Problem Solving Skills

Problem solving is one of the main challenges that needs to be mastered in engineering learning. This study aimed at looking whether cognitive, affective and conative elements play role in the process of mastering problem solving skills in engineering learning. Cognitive, affective and conative refer to the ‘Trilogy of Mind’ concept. Educational innovation from 1980-2016 shows that elements proposed in the ‘Trilogy of Mind’ capable in improving academic achievement. Previous studies conducted among engineering students in polytechnics Malaysia show the importance of cognitive, affective and conative elements in mastering problem solving in learning. This study continued in the process of looking whether cognitive, affective and conative can enhance the engineering learning. Strategy (cognitive), attitude (affective) and initiative (conative) are elements that are found to be able to improve academic achievement through the mastery of problem solving. An in-depth study is referring to the process of looking the relationship between strategy and attitude, initiative and attitude as well as the strategy and initiative. This study uses a survey design with a quantitative approach. The sampling method used is a simple random technique. A total of 100 engineering students from polytechnics were involved in this study. The data is analysed based on inferential statistic. The results showed that planned strategy in problems solving can be influenced by students' attitudes. Besides that, student attitude contributes to student initiative level. Strategy is also associated with initiative in mastering problem solving

Inmates' Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Technical and Vocational Training (TVET) and Entrepreneurship Training Program

: Issues on crime and unemployment among ex-inmates contribute to recidivism in the country even though they were given technical and vocational (TVET) and entrepreneurship trainings by the prison authority.  Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the perception of inmates in prison on the effectiveness of TVET and entrepreneurship training.  The design of the study used in this study was a method of review with a quantitative approach.  Data was collected using a set of questionnaires and analyzed using statistical package software for the Social Science (SPSS version 23.0). A total of 222 respondents, inmates who have undergone and are undergoing TVET were involved in the study. The reliability of instruments was at an excellent and effective level with the consistency level of 0.871 and 0.915.  Data analysis was done in the form of frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and Pearson correlation test (r). The findings of the study showed that perception of the effectiveness of TVET and entrepreneurship skills in prison was high which were the mean value of 4.18 and 4.28 respectively. In addition, the findings showed that there was a significant relationship between TVET effectiveness and entrepreneurship skills among the respondents, r=0.557 (P ≤ 0.01). In conclusion, the inmates perceived that TVET and entrepreneurship skills taught in prison are beneficial.  Apart from that, it could provide added value in their continuity of survival once released primarily in the field of employment and entrepreneurship activities

Employability Challenges Among Residivists: A Qualitative Study

Crime is a social phenomenon in almost every country. The increasing of crime incidents every now and then could instigate recurrence of crimes. The integration of prison inmates into society after release is a challenging phase to start anew outside the iron curtain. As such, this group might tend to return to prison. Therefore, this study aims to explore recidivism among recidivists towards employability. The design of this study is narrative by using a qualitative approach and aided by a semi-structured interview protocol to facilitate the data collection process. A total of 5 recidivists from a prison around the southern zone were selected as study participants. The interviews obtained were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results of the study found that there are four recidivist factors returning to prison, namely difficulty in finding a job, unwillingness to change, family and community stigma, and the relaxation of conditions for participating in the Human Rehabilitation Program (PPI). In conclusion, apart from difficulties in securing employment, there are other reasons that cause recidivism to occur. Therefore, the researcher suggests that the PPI provided by the prison to be updated in line with the needs of recidivists from physical aspects, personality, skills and integration into society so that recidivism cases could be reduced

The role of knowledge, emotion, and intention in influencing students’ behaviors during COVID-19 pandemic

This study aims to investigate the influence of students’ knowledge, attitude, and behavioral intention on their behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey study was designed using an online questionnaire involving 653 respondents from the first to final-year students at a Malaysian university. A CACQ-COV instrument was designed based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model, comprising 67 items in four constructs: students’ knowledge of the current pandemic, emotional engagement, behavioral intention, and behavioral action. The results show that the students learn most about the COVID-19 pandemic from the media and the internet platform; more than 50% of the students rated the television broadcast as the most trusted media. The mean scores of the students’ knowledge about COVID-19 facts and symptoms; emotion, intention, and action are at high levels. In addition, knowledge, emotion, and behavioral intention have significantly influenced the students’ behaviors and actions; it is noted that emotion has the greatest influence compared with knowledge and behavioral intention. The implication is that television broadcast should be the primary choice of media for carrying out future mass campaigns, in preference to social media, especially for announcing urgent matters and disseminating information related to the current issues

Persepsi bakal Guru Pendidikan Khas terhadap Pendidikan Khas di Malaysia

Persediaan dan tahap pengetahuan bakal guru pendidikan khas terhadap murid berkeperluan pendidikan khas (MBPK) adalah penting untuk memastikan penyaluran ilmu kepada golongan MPBK dapat dilaksanakan secara maksimum kerana cara mendidik dan mengajar MPBK berbeza dengan murid tipikal

Predicting Academic Performance: A Systematic Literature Review

The ability to predict student performance in a course or program creates opportunities to improve educational outcomes. With effective performance prediction approaches, instructors can allocate resources and instruction more accurately. Research in this area seeks to identify features that can be used to make predictions, to identify algorithms that can improve predictions, and to quantify aspects of student performance. Moreover, research in predicting student performance seeks to determine interrelated features and to identify the underlying reasons why certain features work better than others. This working group report presents a systematic literature review of work in the area of predicting student performance. Our analysis shows a clearly increasing amount of research in this area, as well as an increasing variety of techniques used. At the same time, the review uncovered a number of issues with research quality that drives a need for the community to provide more detailed reporting of methods and results and to increase efforts to validate and replicate work.Peer reviewe