SEGAMAT, March 3 – Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today the country’s community colleges are key to making available skilled manpower to help boost the economy.

As such, these colleges which have close links to the local community should make available manpower in line with the government’s comprehensive policy on lifelong learning, he said.

“The National Lifelong Learning Master Plan 2011-2020 was launched on Nov 14 last year with the objective of making lifelong learning one way for Malaysians to equip themselves with knowledge and skills.

“In this context, community colleges have been entrusted with the responsibility of being lifelong learning hubs and implement skills-oriented programmes such as apprenticeship training for people without a strong academic background,” he said.

Muhyiddin spoke at the opening of the Segamat 2 Community College and the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Higher Education Ministry and the Ex-servicemen’s Affairs Corporation (Perhebat), here. Also present were Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin and Human Resource Minister and Segamat MP Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam.