BEIJING (Aug 28): Four universities under the Malaysian Technical University (MTU) network signed a letter of intent (LOI) related to technical and vocational education and training (TVET) with the Guizhou Institute of Technology (GIT), located in Southwest China.

In a statement, Education Malaysia Beijing (EMB) said the universities, namely Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) and Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), each signed a LOI.

The LOI was signed at the Second Malaysia-China (Guizhou) Education Cooperation Forum, organised by EMB in collaboration with MTU and GIT, in conjunction with the China ASEAN Education Cooperation Week (CAECW) in Guiyang, China recently.

Also in attendance at the forum were the consul-general of Malaysia in Nanning, Azlimi Zakaria and EMB acting director Jason Choy Min Seng.

According to the EMB statement, each party will take the necessary steps to encourage cooperation such as in the academic field which includes student and academic staff exchange programmes, in addition to research cooperation.

GIT is a polytechnic that focuses on engineering to revitalise the industry and urbanise Guizhou Province, with about 13,000 full-time undergraduate students.

Recently, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad said Malaysia hopes to strengthen the cooperation between government agencies and industry players, and the Chinese government to improve TVET among the two countries.

She also said the cooperation between Malaysian industries and China plays a vital role in providing work experience to many TVET students and graduates, considering it has great potential to produce an efficient workforce.