July 26, 2019
Photo Source: Sabah Skills & Technology Centre Facebook Page
KOTA KINABALU:The Sabah Skills & Technology Centre (SSTC) is currently the only educational institution in Sabah providing courses approved by the Institute of Materials needed for the oil and gas industry from April this year.
This was revealed by its Director Natalie Fung. SSTC set up a prominent booth presence at the recent Sabah Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition 2019 here.
“SSTC aims to provide training and educational programs to enhance the skills level of Sabah’s workforce with a vision to be a leader in holistic human capital development.”
“With the growth of the Sabah’s oil & gas industry, there is great demand and need for more local manpower.
“Sabah needs to prepare its workforce to be continually competent to tackle such jobs in the oil & gas industry in years to come in a systematic way, for the local workforce to play a dominant role in the industry.”
SSTC is located at No. 8, Jalan 1C, KKIP Selatan Industrial Zone 1 (IZ1), Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park and is a joint initiative project by the Federal Government, Sabah State Government and the industry, led by the Federation of Sabah Industries.
It is set-up as a not-for-profit society in which the government, State and Federal, provides the funding and infrastructure whereas the industry provides the support and leadership.
The only Federal Human Resources Minister M. Kula Segaran made a working visit to SSTC on Sept 17, last year after being appointed as the Human Resource Minister under the new government. He provided an allocation of RM4.3 million to meet claims after the previous governments were slow to fund programmes, in addition to the RM200,000 grant by the present Sabah government for expenses.
SSTC also provides training for the workforce under the Corporate Training Programmes, and currently offers up to more than 120 different programmes from management to occupational safety and health programmes. SSTC is a 4-star Training Provider under the Human Resource Development Fund in Sabah.
The Sabah Skills & Technology Centre (SSTC) is Sabah’s very own skills development centre, and the result of close cooperation between the Sabah Government and the industry sponsoring programmes for youths under a mission to empower the people with creativity, innovativeness, integrity, competitiveness and productiveness for the industry and nation.
School-leavers can apply to study culinary arts, oil palm plantation operation & supervision, shielded metal arc welding and hand-held telecommunication device repair, among others.
Diploma holders can apply to study non-destructive testing inspection, welding inspection, I.C.E planning & marketing management, retail management, plantation management and to be qualified as a Safety & Health Officer.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had lauded smart partnership between the industry and Technical, Vocational Education & Training (TVET) institutions which will help in the production of quality products and more efficient services.
He called on more industry players to play a more active role in developing the country’s human capital and supporting the national TVET policy, especially by recognising the skills of TVET graduates and sharing their expertise with them.
“The government believes the agenda to empower TVET with the cooperation from the industry players should be the national TVET strategic goals.
“That is why public and private TVET industry players should get out of their comfort zones and find more effective solutions.
“One of the approaches is definitely through inter-stakeholder collaboration, especially with the industry,” he said, as his government wanted Malaysia’s major industry players to support its technical and vocational education and training (TVET) agenda.”