THE ISSUES AND CHALLENGES OF VOCATIONAL TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM

The future in TVET offers tremendous challenges to the TVET stakeholders including the Vocational teachers. The fast developments in technological concepts by the developed nations like Fourth Industrial Revolution and Made in China 2025 influence the performance of Vocational teacher. This paper discusses the challenges faced by Vocational teachers from three points of view namely the governance, finance and training. In governance, the role of the stakeholders plays a crucial role in sustaining the quality of Vocational teachers. The opportunities and facilities for international and local partnerships are necessary to allows for the Vocational teachers’ professional development. Regarding financial challenges, the economic climates that do not guarantee any job opportunities require collaborations and partnerships of institutions with industries that will benefit both. As for training, the mapping and sustaining of the ideal and relevant skills for the futures are the main challenge. The changes of skills priority and obsolete of certain skills are the point to consider. Furthermore, a crossed national case study has been done to investigate the challenges faced by the Vocational teachers. The findings have supported all the point discussed in this paper. There are five main findings in the case study which is inclusive of teachers’ attitude towards learning; the perception of the society on TVET as the second class education; lack of partnership between the institutions and the industries; lack of pragmatic policies in improving the quality of TVET Teacher Education Program and low input from the industrial sectors in institutional program. Therefore, it is very important for all the stakeholders to work together creating a balance TVET ecosystem that will benefit all and minimize the impact of what future has to offer.