Minister of Labour and Vocational Training Ith Sam Heng has announced the reopening of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions under the ministry to ensure quality after receiving approval from the government.

The decision to reopen TVET institutions was announced on October 12 via a video conference attended by nearly 200 stakeholders.

“The reopening of TVET is essential to ensure the quality and effective training of the skilled workforce to meet the labour market’s needs,” the ministry said.

It said TVET is an important tool for the government to assist in the recovery of the national economy post-Covid-19 pandemic.

Sam Heng said that before the government gave permission to reopen TVET, the planning and strategic evaluation commission under the Inter-ministerial Committee to Combat Covid-19 had examined and assessed the implementation of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), and received approval from the Standing Committee of the National Committee to Combat Covid-19 on October 4.

He said the evaluation was based on two factors: first, the ministry has developed a comprehensive SOP to prevent the spread of Covid-19, especially with clear mechanisms for risk assessment, and criteria for closing and opening institutions has a clear reporting system.

Second, he said TVET institutions as well as the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport’s higher education institutions had 100 per cent of staff, technical teachers and trainees fully vaccinated and ready for booster shots.

“In order to save people’s lives and protect their health and wellbeing from Covid-19, we can gradually reorganise our economic activities to ensure a lifestyle where we can learn to live with Covid-19 in the new normal.”

Currently, the labour ministry has 199 TVET institutions, with 38 of them public and 161 private or run by organisations or associations which comprises about 60,000 students.

In the context of Covid-19, the labour ministry has authorised institutions at all levels to provide short-, medium- and long-term education via distance learning and teaching by equipping them with basic technology as well as the capacity building of technical teachers, among others.

But the ministry said the quality of distant and online training was still limited because trainees did not perform practical work in the workshop.