MBOT recognises 70 community college programmes

SHAH ALAM - A total of 70 academic programmes offered by 50 community colleges nationwide were granted the Full Accreditation status from the Technology and Technical Accreditation Council (TTAC), Malaysia Board of Technologists (MBOT).

MBOT in a statement on Monday said all the programmes were Level Three Certificates of the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF).

It said the programmes covered six of 24 fields recognised by MBOT which were Automotive Technology, Electric and Electronic Technology, Construction Technology, Food Technology, Agriculture Technology as well as Manufacturing and Industrial Technology.

"The Full Accreditation represents official certification to Higher Education Providers (PPT) that the certificate, diploma or degree awarded to graduates were in accordance to the standards set by MQA," it said.

It also said the community college created history for receiving the Full Accreditation from professional bodies such as MBOT for the first time.

It said the recognition was an important sign that the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions such as community colleges have a higher standard of education.

"This includes in aspects of teaching, quality of teaching staff, methodology and teaching resources.

"With this, MBOT is confident that community colleges would successfully produce specialist technicians who are ready to serve the industry and benefit all stakeholders especially those in the TVET programme.

"The recognition would qualify graduates from the 70 programmes to register as qualified technicians under MBOT automatically after graduating," it said.

It said the recognition of Full Accreditation of the technical programmes would see more than 11,000 potential technical graduates to be recognised as professionals to become industry experts as Certified Technicians (CT).

MBOT stated its confidence that it would help the government’s effort to empower the TVET programme, thus increasing the trust and confidence in TVET as one of the educational platforms as well as an important source of livelihood.

Until now, TTAC MBOT has accredited 805 academic programmes covering Level Three Certificates, diplomas, Advanced Diplomas and Bachelor's Degrees at various educational centres, namely public, private and TVET.

"MBOT will continue to observe the teaching and learning process under the TVET programme to ensure the quality of the recognition given would be maintained at all times.

"MBOT has also placed a target to raise the total number of community colleges that received the Full Accreditation," it said.