| Izah Azahari |
GOVERNMENT officials, education/training providers and industry players attended a half-day forum titled ‘Preparing Our Workforce for Industry 4.0’ held by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Regional Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training (Voctech) yesterday.
Moderated by SEAMEO Voctech Deputy Director Professional Affairs/Research Specialist Dr Paryono, the forum featured five guest speakers – Legislative Council (LegCo) member, Director and Principal Architect at Eco Bumi Arkitek, and the President of the Institution of Surveyors, Engineers and Architects (PUJA) Brunei Yang Berhormat Siti Rozaimeriyanty binti Dato Seri Laila Jasa Haji Abdul Rahman; Director of Steinbeis Transferzentrum InnoVET at the University Bremen/Steinbeis Transfer Centre in Germany Professor Dr Georg Spottl; Project Manager of Festo Didactic SE in Germany Holger Regber; President and Founder of Labtech International Ltd in the United States of America Dr Steven McKee; and Programme Director of RECOTVET in Vietnam Ingo Gerhard lmhoff.
Topics discussed at the forum were ‘Changing Vocational Competences through Digitalisation within TVET’ by Professor Dr Georg Spottl; ‘Lifting Talents to Greater Heights’ by Yang Berhormat Siti Rozaimeriyanty; ‘The Change in Working Requirements Regarding Industry 4.0 – A Festo Perspective’ by Holger Regber; ‘The Future of Jobs and the Future Role of TVET’ by Dr Steven McKee; and ‘Making TVET Fit for Industry 4.0’ by Ingo Gerhard Imhoff.
TVET refers to Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report in ‘The Future of Jobs’ (2016), 7.1 million jobs will disappear and two million new jobs will be created by 2020, due to the impact of the fourth industrial revolution known as Industry 4.0.
The forum also saw academicians and leading industry players sharing their insights on how to prepare the workforce with competences relevant to Industry 4.0.
According to Yang Berhormat Siti Rozaimeriyanty during her presentation, the third industrial revolution saw automation where electronics, the Internet and information technology (IT), as well as mass-production, coming in to bridge the gap within society.
“While the impending revolution holds great promise, the pattern of consumption of production and employment created by it also poses major challenges, where age-old policies require changing and rapid prototyping,” she said.
She also highlighted the challenges about to be faced by Brunei, such as meeting Brunei Vision 2035; limited outreach programmes on Industry 4.0; limited academic fields and resources to cater to Industry 4.0 skill set demands; the need to accelerate and align the skill sets and talents required to keep the pace in different industry sectors; and having yet to see a successful pilot within Industry 4.0. Among her suggestions were support and investment in small and medium enterprises (SMEs); new academic programmes for skill sets required by Industry 4.0; training for the upskilling and reskilling of the existing workforce; and public-private collaboration by approaching the government and academic institutions to extend assistance in providing training; and supporting academic and government initiatives through outreach and roadshow activities.
The forum concluded with a presentation of tokens of appreciation to the speakers and moderator, as well as a group photo session.