Labtech President Steve McKee and Don Knezek, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), met recently with representatives of the Ministry of Education and MDeC (Multimedia Development Corporation) in Malaysia to discuss progressive initiatives in that Southeast Asia nation to accelerate the movement of their education systems into the digital age. Of particular interest is the use of ISTE’s NETS in developing specifications of national ICT skill sets in Malaysia for students and teachers, and ISTE’s role in implementing effective sustained teacher development strategies there. The meeting arose as a result of both earlier ISTE work with the Ministry (2007), and current engagement of the Ministry with Generation Yes (long-time ISTE collaborator) and their partner in the region, LABTECH International, LTD in Indonesia and with MDeC. MDeC is a unique government owned corporation that is a leading catalyst for integration of ICT into Malaysia’s national economic development policies and programs including education.

Pictured above from left to right are Dr. Norrizan Razali, Senior Manager for Digital Age Learning, MDeC; Steven McKee, President, Labtech International; Steven Jay Hicks, Manager of the Student Technology Leaders project for Labtech International and GenYes; Dr. Khair Bin Mohammad Yusof, Deputy Director-General of Education for Teacher Professional Development, Ministry of Education Malaysia; Don Knezek, CEO of ISTE; and Shafiek Sultan, Regional Marketing Manager (Asia), Labtech International.

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Todd Thobodeaux is speaking together with Labtech at a regional conference on TVET about how to advance ICT training for professionals, engineers and technicians. Ways of upgrading training facilities, teacher skills and combining this with Internationally recognized certification. Also discussed is how to embed these programs within technical, vocational and engineering schools to provide students with skills and certifications relevant to industry and accepted by industry. These programs can help drive the advancement of not only the ICT sector but almost all industries as so much of industry today is tied to or driven by ICT.

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Today we are concluding the Amman TVET conference with a forum to discuss education issues that are relevant to developing countries. We have senior educators from Jordan and the Middle Eastern region attending the session.

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Labtech is participating in a very important event in Amman Jordan to discuss how to bring TVET into the 21st century, how to solidly link TVET to support economic development and new models for training, business and governance for the Vocational Training Corporation of Jordan. Steven McKee

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Steven McKee, founder and president of Labtech International recently signed a Memorandum of Cooperation  for development of  TVET Educational Training Systems and Services with Dr. Naim Yaakub, director general of the Columbo Plan Staff College.   The Memorandum of Cooperation extends to joint development and research, and was signed at a recent TVET conference in Kuala Lumpur in front of  200 guests from 30 countries,  many who are senior members of their countries education ministries.  More information on the Colombo Plan Staff College can be found at their website http://www.cpsctech.org/about-cpsc.

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