International Journal of Education and Pedagogy (IJEAP) eISSN: 2682-8464 | Vol. 4 No. 3 [September 2022]
Journal website: http://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijeap
MAKING TVET INCLUSIVE FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN MALAYSIA
Magdalene Ang Chooi Hwa1* and Lim Tien Hong2
1 2 National Higher Education Research Institute, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, MALAYSIA
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Article Information:
Article history:
Received date : 18 August 2022 Revised date : 25 September 2022 Accepted date : 26 September 2022 Published date : 29 September 2022
To cite this document:
Ang, M. C. H., & Lim, T. H. (2022).
MAKING TVET INCLUSIVE FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN MALAYSIA. International Journal of Education and Pedagogy, 4(3), 282-290.
Abstract: This paper argues that technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is a way forward to augment Malaysia’s sustainable disability inclusion agenda by means of higher persons with disabilities’ (PWDs) admissions to TVET programs. In the long run, disability inclusive TVET can help address PWDs’ unemployment or underemployment conundrum and at the same time lessen the costs of exclusion shouldered by the government and society. In this light, the paper offers some suggestions to enhance PWDs’ inclusion in TVET. Knowledge in this area is vital to provide the impetus for empirical research on disability inclusive TVET which can in turn flesh out important implications for PWDs’ labor market outcomes and life prospects in the post-pandemic future. It may also promote debate about reforming TVET’s approaches and responses to the changing education and work environment with the aim of building a more inclusive training environment.
Keywords: TVET, disability inclusion, Malaysia.
1. Introduction
Fifteen per cent of the world’s population or an estimated 1 billion people live with some form of disability (WHO, 2020). Of this number, there are approximately 785 million persons with disabilities (PWDs) who constitute a significant pool of human resources in the world (ILO, 2020). Yet this pool of working-age PWDs remains largely untapped because PWDs worldwide face great challenges in gaining employment (Ang et al., 2015; Miethlich & Oldenburg, 2019).
To date, the exact number of PWDs in Malaysia is still unknown. However, the government’s conservative estimate puts it at 4.86 million including the 580,633 who are registered under the Department of Social Welfare as of 30 June, 2021 [Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), 2021].
Workforce participation among PWDs is reportedly still low in 2019, with approximately 4,500 workers with disabilities in public and private sectors (CodeBlue, 2019). Recent data on their (post- pandemic) employment status is not available in the public domain. Yet we can surmise that Malaysians with disabilities who have historically faced significant barriers to employment are also been disproportionately affected by the crisis.
Against this backdrop, this paper stresses the importance of accelerated actions to address the unemployment or underemployment conundrum of PWDs in Malaysia, particularly in the post- pandemic era. A way forward for this country is by augmenting a sustainable disability inclusion agenda by means of increasing PWDs’ admissions to technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Disability inclusive TVET agenda acknowledges the rights of PWDs to participate in training and vocational programs, thus necessitating the removing of barriers to access and transforming discriminatory attitudes and behaviors towards PWDs.
2. The Covid-19 Pandemic and PWDs
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about immensely negative social and economic impacts on societies worldwide. Many lives as well as livelihoods were lost due to the pandemic and the sanctioned closures of every industry to curb the spread of the virus. If the general population has been adversely affected, one cannot imagine the grave repercussions of the pandemic risks on the disabled population. According to ILO (2020), the pandemic has exacerbated inequalities and caused a “lockdown generation”.
PWDs’ unemployment woes are most likely to have worsened as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
There are no supporting data from Malaysia but literatures from other countries (e.g., Smith, 2020;
U.S. Department of Labor Office, 2021) generally concur that the unemployment rates of PWDs have risen sharply because of the Covid-19 crisis. Smith (2020) reported that the majority of job losses are where many PWDs were employed, i.e., in the retail and hospitality sectors. According to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (cited in Smith, 2020), since the onset of the pandemic which is sometime in March 2019, I in 5 workers with disabilities have lost their jobs in comparison to 1 in 7 in the general population.
As we all know, the pandemic has financially crippled many companies. Understandably, employers are hesitant to hire and/or rehire PWDs for fear of incurring costs on reasonable accommodations as required by law (Smith, 2020). Plausibly, the result is a marked increase in the unemployment or underemployment cases of PWDs in the post-pandemic era. Lamentably, there are no current data on the employment status of Malaysian with disabilities in the post-pandemic time to confirm this assumption. Nonetheless, we can still conjecture that this population has been disproportionately affected by the crisis in terms of lower employment rates.
That said, this paper accordingly argues that this is where TVET can play a vital role in this process of equipping or retraining PWDs with skills that are much more relevant to the post-pandemic marketplace so that their employment prospects can be enhanced (Caggiano, 2017).
3. Brief Background on Malaysian TVET
The conceptual definition of TVET encompasses post-primary, secondary and tertiary educational levels. The delivery of TVET programs in junior secondary level lies under the Ministry of Education.
Whereas for post-secondary level which is somewhat fragmented, it falls under the purview of 7 government ministries (i.e., Ministry of Human Resource, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Regional and Rural Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Agro- based Industry, Ministry of Works and Ministry of Defence) and their agencies, 4 public universities (i.e., Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn), 12 state skills development institutions and privately owned TVET institutions (e.g., Universiti Kuala Lumpur and German-Malaysian Institute) (Mohd Amin, 2016).
The 12th Malaysian Plan (2021-2025) (12MP) stated that as of December 2018, there were 1595 TVET institutions - 640 public, 633 private and 22 state colleges. It should be noted that the focus of this paper is on the TVET system and delivery at the post-secondary level under the purview of government agencies, state skills development colleges and private TVET colleges.
4. Disability Inclusive TVET
Many countries worldwide are easing up their Covid-19 restrictions. Most economic sectors including the education sector are back open while some are still in recovery. A report by British Council (2021) stated that a silver lining of the pandemic for the TVET sector is that it was able to innovate and increase its attractiveness through a number of approaches. These include experiential virtual training to remote placement with employers which boost the inclusiveness of provision for training and work experience for all, including PWDs.
Before the onslaught of the pandemic, TVET has received global recognition as explicit outcomes in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). TVET is widely conceded as the core of human resource development for nations in terms of churning out a continuous supply of skilled workers (Yeap et al., 2021). In 12MP, the Malaysian government accordingly acknowledges that TVET has the potential to be the growth engine for Malaysia to become a high-income nation (Chan, 2021; Yeap
On February 3, 2022, the government also set up the Government-Industry TVET Coordination Body (GITC). The Malaysia Education Blueprint (2015-2025) (Higher Education) also gave TVET renewed attention. The Blueprint stated that a total of 1.3 million job opportunities awaited TVET graduates in 2020.
It is worth noting that SDGs’ Target 4.5 makes specific mention about ensuring equal access to TVET for PWDs and other vulnerable groups. However, this inclusion element is somehow missing from the nations’ TVET agendas, thus confirming ILO’s (2020) observation such that only few national TVET policies and strategies refer to inclusion. In the case of Malaysia, a telling sign would be the relatively small number of TVET institutions at post-secondary level that are disability inclusive, hence the insignificant number of TVET graduates with disabilities. To elaborate, there was a notable number of TVET institutions which provide courses from diploma to doctoral levels as of June 2021 (MOHE, 2021). However, of the 36 polytechnics and 92 community colleges, only a mere 17 institutions (5 polytechnics and 12 community colleges) cater for PWDs which in 2021 churned out 138 PWD graduates (MOHE, 2021). There are, however, no official data on whether these graduates with disabilities are now gainfully employed.
In view of the aforementioned, the clarion call for disability inclusive TVET is warranted. Pursuing the inclusive skills development agenda has merit (Caggiano, 2017). Disability inclusive TVET is not merely a normative goal. It is also a process which offers the capability and resources to provide relatively higher quality and marketable programs that translate to more sought-after graduates (including PWDs). Employers also stand to gain in terms of obtaining a larger pool of skilled and knowledgeable graduates among whom are PWDs. Non-disabled co-workers can learn by embracing diversity and inclusion while other beneficiaries such as the government and societies need not shoulder the costs of exclusion (ILO, 2020). In sum, the disability inclusive TVET agenda ensures that no one is being left behind, employability is maintained and businesses can recover promptly from the pandemic crisis. (ILO, 2020).
5. How to Promote Disability Inclusive TVET
The policy brief and guide issued by ILO (2017, 2020 respectively) outlines a number of actions to make TVET and skills development systems more accessible to PWDs. We deem these 2 documents as a useful and appropriate foundation on which we offer seven broad strategies to boost the inclusion of PWDs in Malaysian TVET programs. Essentially, enhancing disability inclusion in TVET necessitates a concerted and continuous effort to make participation easier by removing barriers for PWDs including changing discriminatory attitudes and behaviors and revamping certain laws, policies and institutions.
(1) Assess TVET’s extent of inclusivity
A preliminary step to make TVET more accessible to PWDs should be the assessment of how inclusive Malaysian TVET currently is. Desk research revealed that the number of disability inclusive TVET institutions in Malaysia leaves much to be desired. We should also empirically investigate the reasons for PWDs’ exclusion from TVET. Besides involving interest groups such as TVET providers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the studies, researchers should directly engage with PWDs to obtain their lived experiences pertaining to the challenges they face and other related concerns they may have in accessing TVET. The evidence-based data obtained can thus provide a sound basis on which strategies for disability inclusive TVET can be formulated to address the gaps.
(2) Build awareness about disability
Mistaken assumptions about disability and about PWDs among policy makers, TVET providers, employers and society at large should be effectively challenged. Targeted approaches include holding a National Disability Awareness Campaign with the aims of understanding disability, communicating the value of including PWDs in TVET and hiring them when they graduate. Miethlich and Oldenburg (2019) posit that the employment of PWDs should be regarded as a strategic asset for any nation.
Ensuring qualified PWDs are employed and identifying roles in which they may be particularly successful should hence be made a priority. Employers should also be encouraged to expand quality employment opportunities for PWDs. This can also serve as a model for other employers to follow.
(3) Develop enabling policies and strategies to address existing inequalities
TVET delivery currently falls under the jurisdiction of 7 Malaysian government ministries and agencies, resulting not only in unstructured governance but also duplication in responsibilities as well as poor coordination and increased costs. The fragmented administration has also reinforced the position of TVET as a stepchild within the Malaysian education system. Therefore, the government should review and streamline the existing TVET policies and strategies with a focus on promoting disability inclusion. Enabling policies and processes can be developed by drawing on best practices from countries like Germany, US, UK and Australia to increase access to TVET for PWDs. The policies and strategies should aim at creating an inclusive TVET agenda as well as an inclusive post- pandemic economy with high-quality training and employment opportunities for PWDs. The National TVET Council should set up a Disability Inclusive TVET Commission where the Committee is composed of some members with disabilities. The role of this commission is to work closely with GITC to drive and oversee the successful implementation of the TVET disability inclusion agenda.
There is also a critical need to expand disability inclusive TVET policies and practices to all through more disability inclusive cultures, be it on campus or at the workplace. Disability inclusive cultures can alleviate implicit bias, prejudices and harmful practices towards PWDs. Equally important is that the effectiveness of the policies and strategies should be regularly monitored and reviewed.
(4) Establish consortium among TVET providers and industry
The GITC should spearhead the establishment of TVET provider-employer consortium. This initiative is vital to ensure an employer engagement strategy with specific focus on emerging and/or growth industries in the post-pandemic world. The four growth sectors are e-commerce, fast food franchises, online food delivery and virtual events (Forbes, 2022) where potentially TVET providers and employers could work together to create education and employment opportunities for PWDs.
Other operational alliances and partnerships should be identified and fostered with key partners such as special needs secondary schools and NGOs for PWDs.
(5) Empower disability inclusive TVET eco-system
TVET eco-system that promotes inclusion for PWDs should cover aspects ranging from physical infrastructures, workforce capacity to disability support. Ideally, all physical requirements necessary to build or upgrade and operate a TVET facility successfully should be disabled friendly. At the minimum, TVET providers should develop and maintain an eco-system of on-going support to inclusion, including reasonable accommodations in terms of buildings, transport, better digital access and disabled-friendly skills development facilities.
Another key consideration is to strengthen the quality of TVET workforce capacity and services staff.
This calls for the formulation of a comprehensive training roadmap that incorporates disability awareness and equality training, more industrial training and attachment programs. Such training should be carried out on a regular basis. This is to ensure TVET workforce and support staff fully embrace the concept of disability inclusion, are industry savvy, can better serve students with disabilities, better support strategies and have the ability to employ data for more effective case management.
The third important aspect is to strengthen the TVET curriculum and course design, ensuring that they are industry-relevant. It is also crucial that entry criteria, teaching materials and methods, evaluation should be reviewed and adapted in light of the post-pandemic workplace. In its current form, TVET delivery is so fragmented resulting in poor coordination and duplication of responsibilities and additional government funding. As such, TVET instructors in partner colleges and the industry should collaborate closely in the development of curriculum, course and evaluation design. This can help to minimize the overlapping of practices and processes, optimize the effectiveness of integration of PWDs in TVET and finally prevent skills mismatch in the labor market.
In addition, the existing Central Skill Monitoring Committee should be roped in to revisit the Certified Occupation List (COL). This is to promote more effective coordination of human capital policies and practices, upskilling while guiding disability inclusive TVET learning program in the post-pandemic era.
Next is establishing effective placement for graduates with a range of assistance to support PWDs who are newly employed. Very frequently, TVET institutions provide graduates with disabilities little or no support at all to seek employment and stay employed. This issue should be addressed even from the apprenticeship stage by establishing support mechanisms for PWDs via close collaboration between TVET providers and potential employers. The TVET Provider-Industry Consortium has a crucial role to play here.
(6) Improving quality assurance of TVET qualifications for PWDs
Two accreditation bodies, Department of Skills Development (DSD) and Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), oversee the quality of TVET programs in Malaysia. The former performs the accreditation for the skills sector, while the latter accredits the technical and vocational sector as well as the academic sector (Mohd Amin, 2016). This dual accreditation system has somehow segregated the TVET sector in terms of its qualifications within the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF).
As an instrument to develop and classify qualifications based on a set of agreed and benchmarked criteria, MQF forms the basis for quality assurance of higher education which covers skills, technical/vocational, academic and professional programs.
The lack of uniformity in the current system has not only stifled the mobility of students between and amongst all TVET institutions but has also compromised TVET qualifications and graduates’
credibility (Mohd Amin, 2016). The scenario gets worse when comparing the TVET programs for the mainstream population and those for PWDs. The latter seems to funnel graduates with disabilities into either dying industries that are been replaced by automation and technology or comparatively less competitive jobs. Therefore, the government should consolidate and streamline TVET qualifications by establishing a single system for accrediting TVET programs for non-disabled and disabled students offered by both public and private TVET institutions. In short, marketable TVET programs and qualifications should be accessible to all deserving students, regardless of their disability status.
(7) Allocate funding to support strategies
To make the reform possible, the Malaysian government must first advocate for the inclusion of PWDs in TVET, develop enabling policies and implement action plans as part of good governance.
But more importantly, inclusive political engagement should invest adequate funding and resources for the cause. The bigger slice of the funding should be for increasing or improving PWDs’ access to computers, broadband, assistive technology and accommodations for remote communications which will in turn widen their reach for TVET educational programs and telework.
Resources should also be allocated for the training and development of TVET workforce that supports PWDs and who ultimately delivers the disability inclusive TVET agenda. Another consideration is to incentivize disability inclusion initiatives carried out by both public and private TVET providers.
For instance, TVET colleges that accept students with disabilities and successfully produce graduates with disabilities can enjoy some form of tax benefits or incentives.
6. Conclusion
Obtaining quality TVET education that opens the door to wider and better job opportunities is not only the need but also the right of Malaysians with disabilities. A reform of TVET is thus much needed to make TVET more accessible for PWDs. This essentially requires the political will and the whole society to work systematically on dismantling structural and systemic barriers to disability inclusion in TVET policies and programs. It is hoped that this paper’s recommendations may provide some directions to accelerate actions on disability inclusion in TVET and skills development. A more inclusive TVET can in turn help boost recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic for those who need it most such as PWDs.
7. Acknowledgement
This paper is part of a larger research project funded by National Higher Education Research Institute, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM/IPPTN/KAJ/124).
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