The development of a curriculum framework for the National Dual Training System (NDTS) in Malaysia

• Main Author: Abu Bakar, Mohd Yusof
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English; English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: LB Theory and practice of education; LB2801-3095 School administration and organization
• Online Access: http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/1981/1/24p%20MOHD%20YUSOFF%20ABU%20BAKAR.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/1981/2/MOHD%20YUSOFF%20ABU%20BAKAR%20COPYRIGHT%20DECLARATION.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/1981/3/MOHD%20YUSOFF%20ABU%20BAKAR%20WATERMARK.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/1981/

Curriculum is one of the most important elements in the Technical Education and Vocational Training system. Nonetheless, the existing National Occupational Skill Standard (NOSS)-based curriculum was found incapable of playing this role for its approach had created issue of workers being produced not meeting the needs of the industry or mismatch. In addressing the issue, the Malaysian government has decided to implement the National Dual Training System (NDTS) in 2005. The development of the NDTS curriculum was started in 2004, with the help of industry experts and skilled workers and guided by overseas consultants. However, the development of the NDTS curriculums was very time consuming. This has resulted in a serious scarcity in the number of curriculum. Worse still, the completed curriculums have been found inadequate that discouraged industry participation in the training programmes. Study showed that it stemmed from the absence of a good framework for the curriculum development in the country. Thus, it is paramount to make the needed NDTS curriculum framework available. The study adopted the qualitative research approach and the data collection methods were interviews, document reviews and observations. The existing practices of the NDTS curriculum development were investigated and analysed to unveil the actual way of developing the curriculum. The findings were benchmarked against the practices applied by developed countries to evaluate whether the NDTS curriculum development processes were in line with theirs in terms of dual training concept, work process analysis and establishment of working team. Ultimately, the study came up with a curriculum development framework to benefit all parties involved in training especially the curriculum developers to produce good curriculums within a reasonable time frame.