Vocational and technical education is important because not everyone should be expected to take the path of going to a university and getting a university degree. Some people prefer to take a non-academic path because this is where their talent and interest lies. As such, having a good vocational and technical training program is important to ensure that students who are inclined towards these sectors have a respectable channel to pursue skills in this area.
Vocational education and training (VET) has a key economic function in up-skilling and integrating young people into the labour market and in providing high quality technical skills. But in recent decades, VET has been a neglected part of initial education: education policy research and reform have tended to focus primarily on school and tertiary education. Example in Germany, apprenticing with a mentor in a 'skills' industry is a perfectly respectable career choice. Vocational training is the first choice for most Europeans after taking their final school exams. According to a recent survey of 27,000 people between 15 and 24 years in all 27 EU member states, vocational training has a very good image. This is mostly due to the high quality of the training, 73 per cent rated career perspectives as good.
In Malaysia, I don't think there are such channels. Making the pursuit of these skills (being a mechanic, electrician, plumber, carpenter, etc...) more respectable is one of the ways to reduce school dropout rates and to increase the skills and earning power of those who do not lean towards the academic arena. There is a strong stigma against vocational education in Malaysia - it's often seen as the last resort for those who weren't "good enough" to go to university. As been mentioned, it's still a stigma that only school dropouts or who can't enter the academic pathway has no choice but to do vocational courses.
Malaysia in specific DSD (Department of Skills Development) has to do a lot more to bring up and mainstream of skills & vocational training. We need to explore avenues to provide more access and encourage more people to sign up to vocational and technical training programs. Instead of building more technical universities, the government should really look into open access or articulation to tertiary such higher technical schools, polytechnics and universities
