By: Retave’s TVET Desk Editor
Malaysia’s TVET sector runs on 1,345 institutions: 669 public, 652 private, and 24 under state governments; and, buried in Dasar TVET Negara 2030’s own diagnosis, on two accreditation systems that don’t fully talk to each other. That’s the quiet admission at the center of the policy: before you can fix TVET’s image or its funding, you have to fix its fault lines.
Two Regulators, For One Sector:
Walk into a TVET classroom in Malaysia, and there’s a decent chance it’s governed by one of two separate legal frameworks. The Department of Skills Development (JPK) certifies programs under the National Skills Development Act 2006 (Act 652), issuing Malaysia Skills Certificates and Diplomas built around National Occupational Skills Standards. The Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), meanwhile, accredits under the Malaysian Qualifications Agency Act 2007 (Act 679), awarding certificates, diplomas, and degrees mapped to the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF). Both produce legitimate TVET credentials. But the policy states plainly that students trying to move between institutions accredited under different systems face limited mobility; meaning a skills certificate on one track doesn’t always translate cleanly if a graduate wants to climb toward a diploma or degree on the other.
Malaysia has been trying to close that gap since 2019, when it introduced a Single TVET Quality Assurance System and folded the skills and vocational-technical sectors into a unified TVET category under the MQF. A Code of Practice for TVET Programme Accreditation now exists as the shared rulebook. But the policy itself says adoption is still in its early stages and uneven, which is exactly why confusion around quality and certification recognition persists.
A Dozen Ministries, One System; In Theory
The dual-accreditation problem is really a symptom of a bigger one: TVET in Malaysia is administered across roughly a dozen ministries, plus state governments and agencies, each running programs under its own legal authority. The policy is unusually candid about the fallout: overlapping functions, unclear roles and responsibilities, and program data scattered across so many ministries that nobody has a complete, real-time picture of the national TVET landscape. Without that picture, planning and forecasting stay limited by design.
Enter MTVET.
This is the gap that the National TVET Council, or Majlis TVET Negara (MTVET), was established to close. Established on 18 December 2020 through a Cabinet memorandum, MTVET became the apex decision-making body for national TVET direction, built around three founding priorities: integrated governance, industry-driven TVET, and TVET shaped for the future.
It didn’t stay in its original form for long. In December 2022, the Cabinet moved the MTVET Secretariat from the Ministry of Higher Education to the Ministry of Human Resources and approved a leaner two-tier structure. A Council, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, now sits above a High-Level Committee chaired by the Chief Secretary to the Government; a committee that includes the heads of both JPK and MQA at the same table, evaluating and endorsing strategy before it ever reaches the Council.
What the Policy Is Actually Proposing
Thrust A of the new policy, Comprehensive and Synergistic Governance, reads like a direct response to everything above: empowering MTVET as the central coordinating agency, drafting a dedicated TVET Act or amendments to existing laws, building a national TVET big-data platform, and creating a decentralized model that hands state governments and economic corridors real responsibility for workforce planning in their own regions.
None of that resolves the JPK–MQA divide overnight. But it’s the clearest signal yet that Putrajaya knows the coordination problem is real, and that repairing TVET’s reputation starts with clarifying who’s actually in charge.
Further Reading
- TVET in Malaysia: A Primer on the 2030 National Policy
- Malaysia’s TVET Funding Model Has a Structural Flaw
- TVET Isn’t a Fallback Anymore, Say Malaysia’s Own Numbers
References
Akta Agensi Kelayakan Malaysia 2007 [Malaysian Qualifications Agency Act 2007] (Act 679). (2007). Government of Malaysia.
Akta Pembangunan Kemahiran Kebangsaan 2006 [National Skills Development Act 2006] (Act 652). (2006). Government of Malaysia.
Agensi Kelayakan Malaysia. (2020). Code of practice for TVET programme accreditation (2nd ed.).
Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi. (2021). Kajian pembangunan kerangka penyelarasan ekosistem TVET Malaysia.
Sekretariat Majlis TVET Negara. (2024). Dasar TVET Negara 2030. Jabatan Perdana Menteri Malaysia.
