The 5th High Officials Meeting (HOM) on Southeast Asia - Technical and Vocational Education and Training (SEA-TVET) with the theme of “Strengthening Efforts towards TVET 4.0” was organised by the Ministry of Education of Brunei Darussalam, Politeknik Brunei (PB), Institute of Brunei Technical Education (IBTE), and International Affairs Unit (MoE) on 9-10 September 2019 at The Centrepoint Hotel, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam.   

The 5th HOM on SEA-TVET aimed to: 1) discuss the current situation of TVET collaboration during 2018-2019; 2) identify the strategies to improve the regional cooperation and harmonisation for the region;  3) determine and plan for the regional directions and strategies to advance quality of TVET in Southeast Asian countries that may enhance the responsiveness of the member states and the region towards Industry 4.0; and 4) strengthen cooperation among the TVET Ministries/Departments and TVET development agencies among Southeast Asia and with other countries beyond Southeast Asian.

The meeting was officially opened on 9 September 2019 by His Excellency Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Hamzah bin Haji Sulaiman, the Minister of Education of Brunei Darussalam. The SEAMEO Secretariat Director, Dr Ethel Agnes P Valenzuela also delivered her opening remarks.

The meeting was attended by a total of 104 delegates, comprising of TVET high officials and policymakers from Ministries of Education, Ministries of Labour and Training, Ministries of Science and Technology, Ministries of Higher Education and other related Ministries from 11 Southeast Asian countries, namely, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Timor-Leste. The participants included partner countries such as Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, China, and Korea; and Development Agencies, such as ASEAN Secretariat, GIZ, UNESCO, ASEAN-China Centre, KOSEN (Japan), KRIVET (Korea), SEAMEO SEARCA, SEAMEO TED, and SEAMEO SEN.

With the theme “Strengthening Efforts towards TVET 4.0,” the meeting focused on sharing and discussing the country’s strategic initiatives related to the theme as presented by the invited keynote speakers from the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB) – Germany, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore. The meeting also presented twelve (12) regional initiatives/proposals for TVET development from Development Agencies for information and endorsement.      

The Industry 4.0 Feature in TVET Regional Knowledge Platform (https://sea-vet.net/)  was officially launched at the meeting by SEAMEO VOCTECH and GIZ/RECOTVET. 

The TVET High Officials’ Round Table Meeting on 9 September 2019 is one of the most important sessions.  The session aimed to determine the regional directions and strategies to advance the quality of TVET in line with the Industry 4.0 in Southeast Asian countries, to review and provide further recommendations for the national and regional initiatives as presented in sessions 1 and 2, and to identify other regional policy recommendations for promoting TVET collaboration and harmonization among Southeast Asian countries. The results were presented by the SEAMEO Secretariat at the Closing Session on 10 September 2019.

Besides, a bilateral/network session was also held to provide opportunities for participating Ministries and institutions or organizations to explore possible areas of collaboration, and to strengthen or renew their partnership related to TVET collaboration. From the session, 17 institutions participated with the outputs of 14 potential collaborations.

Besides the formal meetings, the delegate had an opportunity to visit Agrome IQ International Sdn Bhd, on 10 September 2019. The company provides an agriculture technology platform to increase overall farm productivity.

The 5th HOM on SEA-TVET was officially opened by His Excellency Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Hamzah bin Haji Sulaiman, the Minister of Education of Brunei Darussalam.

Mr Herbert Tutschner, Keynote Speaker from BIBB, Germany, presented the topic “Digitalisation Industry 4.0, VET 4.0: The German Way of Transformation.”

Regional Initiatives presented by Development Agencies

High Officials’ Round Table Meeting

Concurrent Session on Skill Development for TVET 4.0 and Public-Private Partnership Model towards TVET 4.0 presented by partners such as Politeknik Brunei, KOSEN (Japan), KRIVET (Korea), German-Malaysia Institution,  Department of International Trade- UK, LabTech/WorldDIDAC, and E Commerce Association of China.

Webpage: Click

News and Articles:  
Borneo Bulletin, “Become Lifelong Learners to Survive Industry 4.0, says minister”, 10 Sept 2019: Click
Borneo Bulletin, “Work Together to Address Wave of Industry 4.0”, 10 Sept 2019: Click

Summary Report: Click

To view the event video: Click

To download the meeting documents and presentations: Click

To view photos: Click