Sagah (front, fourth left) flanked by Francis (left) and Adana with others during the SPEAK 2026 session.
MIRI (April 15): Sarawak is sharpening its education-to-employment pipeline by embedding real workforce data into school counselling, as the inaugural ‘Sistem Pesanan Kerjaya’ (SPEAK) 2026 session highlighted a sharp rise in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) placements and growing industry demand.
The programme — the first of five statewide stops this year — brought together guidance counsellors and school counsellors from 194 government secondary schools, alongside industry representatives from Petroleum Sarawak Berhad, Centre for Technology Excellence Sarawak and Sarawak Skills.
Rather than a conventional career briefing, the session was positioned as a data-driven intervention aimed at closing the gap between classroom guidance and labour market realities.
State Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn said SPEAK effectively connects the “supply side” — academic and training institutions — with the “demand side”, represented by industry.
“This event was launched exactly two weeks after the announcement of the SPM 2025 results, a narrow window where guidance can genuinely redirect a young person’s future.
“This year, school counsellors and guidance teachers are expected to guide Form 4 to Form 6 students on making data-informed decisions about tertiary education and vocational training,” he said during the programme.
Participants were also presented with labour placement data from the Social Security Organisation, which underscored the accelerating uptake of TVET graduates in the workforce. In 2023, 7,890 TVET graduates were placed in jobs in Sarawak, rising to more than 12,800 in 2025.
The figures were described by the ministry’s permanent secretary Datu Adana Jed as a practical roadmap for future planning.
“It shows us where the opportunities are, and where we need to focus our efforts,” he said, adding that key growth areas include manufacturing, social services and digital transformation.
He also urged school counsellors to return to their schools and reframe the narrative of TVET being a path for stumbling students as TVET being the backbone of Sarawak’s infrastructure.
Sagah echoed the sentiment, saying short-course certifications are a viable and often overlooked pathway for SPM leavers who do not pursue full academic degrees.
“We are dismantling the stigma of non-academic pathways, and TVET is now a premier choice for career success,” he said.
