By Nadhira Balqist Masran
SHAH ALAM, 1 November 2017: Higher Education Minister, Dato Seri Idris Jusoh, witnessed the signing of the Certificate of Collaboration (CoC) between the Polytechnic Education Department and Trans Resources Corporation Sdn. Bhd. (TRC) at the MRT Sungai Buloh Depot last Monday (30 October).
Dato Seri Idris told a press conference that the collaboration between the two organisations would create more opportunities for graduates from the polytechnic. He stated that there should not be any gap between the industry and the academia.
œIndustry and academia are one, which means that the industry people and academia should work together in fulfilling the industry needs,” Dato’ Seri Idris said.
He added that higher education will become irrelevant “if they fail to understand what the industry wants from graduating students”.
œTells us what you want, how many graduates you need, when you want them and what kind of curriculum that you want us to integrate into the industry, he said in reference to the TRC which is in line with the intention of producing employable graduates from the polytechnic.
The CoC included TRC giving their feedback on the curriculum at Polytechnic Ungku Omar and redesigning it to suit industry needs. The lecturers also need to be re-skilled by TRC and about 40 per cent of the TRC staff needs to co-teach the students in giving a clear idea of what is expected in the field.
The Minister also suggested opening of TRC Education Centre at Polytechnic Ungku Omar. ***