Govt to secure employment for 622 tahfiz students with Boeing, Airbus, says Zahid

MELAKA: Some 622 tahfiz students are currently undergoing training in the aviation industry and efforts will be taken by the government to have them employed by Boeing and Airbus, says Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

The Deputy Prime Minister said these tahfiz students were now training under the TVET programme while 17 of the seniors had graduated and have secured employment.

“The training in the aviation sector is aimed to produce a generation of capable tahfiz students contributing to various professional fields on a global level.

“We are confident of a bright future for these students in view that we have signed a memorandum of agreement with engineering companies in the aerospace sector and we trust that 100% of them would be employed by these multinational corporations,” he said after opening the national-level TVET 2024 Expo at the Melaka International Trade Centre (MITC) at Ayer Keroh here on Friday (Sept 27).

Ahmad Zahid said that TVET was now being expanded across all levels of education, including the integration of the tahfiz TVET programme, to combine Islamic education with technical skills.

He said the government’s objective is aimed at changing perceptions about the future of these tahfiz students, which has traditionally focused solely on religious fields through the effort by the Malaysian Aviation Technology Institute at Kuala Lumpur University and various other related universities.

Meanwhile, he said that under the High-Level TVET Programme (Hi-TVET), the aerospace industry, especially Composites Technology Research Malaysia Sdn Bhd (CTRM), offers graduates the opportunity to further their studies at Airbus and Boeing in Europe and the United States, respectively.

The government, he said, is also demonstrating its commitment by providing state-of-the-art training equipment, including six electric and hydrogen vehicles to be used by TVET students for training purposes.

This, Ahmad Zahid added, was aimed at allowing TVET students to hone their skills in the electric automotive sector.