TVET providers that had yet to be assessed should participate in the next rating cycle, while institutions that had already been assessed should continue improving the quality of their training.
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysia TVET Rating (MTR) should be adopted as a national benchmark to ensure the quality of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes is assessed against a uniform standard across ministries and agencies.
Yayasan Mahir Malaysia president Datuk P. Sri Ganes said the move was important to establish a more consistent measure of quality within the country’s TVET ecosystem.
He said the involvement of various ministries and agencies in implementing TVET, each with different assessment mechanisms, made it difficult to compare programme performance.
“Therefore, MTR provides a common rating scale that allows public and private TVET institutions to be assessed against a uniform standard,” he said in a statement here on Friday.
Elaborating, Sri Ganes said the MTR star rating should not be viewed as a threat by TVET institutions, but instead welcomed as a positive mechanism to demonstrate their quality and competitiveness.
He said TVET providers that had yet to be assessed should participate in the next rating cycle, while institutions that had already been assessed should continue improving the quality of their training.
Commenting on the Department of Skills Development (JPK) making the official MTR 2026 results publicly available through the MySPIKE portal, Sri Ganes said the move meant MTR was no longer merely an internal assessment instrument, but also served as a market reference for students, parents and industry when making their choices.
He advised parents and students not to be easily influenced by various awards, badges of excellence or claims of being the “best institution”, which could be misleading, but to check the official MTR rating status through the portal before making a decision.
Sri Ganes also urged industry players to consider the rating when selecting training partners, placing trainees, sponsoring students or recruiting graduates, particularly by giving priority to five-star-rated programmes.
Meanwhile, he proposed that the government, Human Resource Development Corporation (HRD Corp), state foundations, zakat institutions, corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes and other funding providers make MTR rating one of the criteria when allocating funding for skills training.
He said the move would help ensure public and welfare funds were channelled to training providers whose quality had been independently verified, while encouraging lower-rated institutions to make improvements.
Ganes said the rating was valid for a specific period and had to be renewed, ensuring that institutions could not rely solely on their past achievements.
Sri Ganes, who is also chief executive officer of SG TVET Group Bhd, said the institution’s participation in the MTR cycle demonstrated that all TVET providers were assessed against the same standard, thereby strengthening confidence in the rating system.
He also expressed his appreciation to Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri R. Ramanan following the launch of MTR at the 5-Star TVET Institution Awards ceremony in February, as well as for positioning it as a national performance benchmark for TVET.
MTR, which succeeds the JPK Star Rating and Single Rating of TVET Programmes, establishes five rating levels, from one to five stars, based on the respective levels of programme viability and competitiveness.