MCA, Universiti Tuanku Abdul Rahman pact with Taiwan varsities

KUALA LUMPUR: MCA will be signing a memorandum of cooperation (MOC) with seven Taiwanese universities next week, paving the way for more vocational training opportunities.
Courses such as bakery, information technology, fashion and agriculture are among those expected to begin at Kolej Tunku Abdul Rahman, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman and Kojadi Institute within three months after the MOC is signed, said party president Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek.
“These courses will give a second chance to students who did not do well academically to gain knowledge in other fields,” he said at Wisma MCA here yesterday.
The seven Taiwanese universities are Chinese Culture University, Feng Chia University, MingDao University, TransWorld University, I-Shou University, National Taipei University of Technology and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
The average length of the courses is two years, with an annual fee of around RM12,000.
Dr Chua said the MOC was in line with the government’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) which aimed at training more skilled workers.

“In the next 10 years, the Government is planning to create three million new job opportunities and 40% of these vacancies are to be filled by skilled workers,” he said.

Dr Chua said the party wanted to help the Government to increase the number of students receiving vocational training.
“Currently, the Chinese participation in vocational education is too low as only 1% of 86,000 vocational trainees are Chinese,” he said.
Dr Chua said the Chinese community wrongly perceived that vocational and technical workers had no bright future, in terms of job development and salary increment.
“On the contrary, with the ETP, there are a lot of job opportunities for skilled workers,” he said.

( http://www.mca.org.my/en/mca-pact-with-taiwan-varsities/)