A SURVEY OF FACILITY MANAGEMENT GREEN SKILLS COMPETENCY AMONG TVET EDUCATORS AND STUDENTS IN A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN MALAYSIA

Authors

  • Shri Dayalam James @ Batumalay Sultan Idris Education University
  • Ramlee Mustapha Sultan Idris Education University
  • Theepa Paramasivam Sultan Idris Education University
  • Irdayanti Mat Nashir Sultan Idris Education University

Keywords:

Green skills, Green Technology, TVET, Facility Management, Sustainable Development

Abstract

Green skills are sometimes referred to as sustainable development skills because they are associated with technical skills, knowledge, values, and attitudes required in the workforce to produce and promote sustainable, social, economic, and environmental results in business, industries, and the community. Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) plays an important role in promoting the development of a sustainable workforce by educating and training students through a more valuable sustainability-related curriculum, as well as contributing to the development of the Facility Management (FM) industry. The purpose of this study was to investigate the green skills competency of third- and final-year TVET undergraduate students and educators from a public university in Malaysia. Based on Pavlova's green skills competency and ecological modernization theory by Howes et al., this study constructs a conceptual framework. This study includes 40 Faculty of Technical and Vocational educators and 81 third- and final-year students from Engineering Technology, Agriculture, and Family and Consumer Science programmes. The data were collected using an online Google form. In this study, descriptive statistics such as frequency (ƒ)  and percentage (%) were used. Thematic analysis was also employed to categorise open-ended items. This study emphasises qualitative analysis findings to relate green skills competency of the respondents.  The findings of this study reveal that the respondents’ claims that they understood the green concept. They thought green skills as sustainability, green technology, recycling activities, and renewable energy. Most of the participants agreed that they possessed green knowledge and skills. They also stated the benefits of green technology which included creating sustainable environment, providing renewable energy, promoting recycling activities, saving operational costs, improving wellbeing, enhancing energy saving, providing more green jobs opportunities and encouraging the use of green materials. However, the most challenging barrier is inadequate facilities to support green skills related activities. Next, educators also highlighted the lack of proper green curriculum and the lecturers lack of motivation as the other barriers faced while teaching green skills. Finally, the respondents made suggestions to their institution on how to enhance green skills competency among TVET educators and students. They stated that educators should conduct seminar and training related to green skills to their students. Followed by need to restructure green curriculum, ensuring adequate resources are available, cultivating green attitude and ensuring policy is implemented at the institutional and national levels.

References

IFMA. (2022). What is Facility Management. International Facility Management Association. https://www.ifma.org/about/what-is-facility-management/

Michel. (n. d.). Facility Management is About More Than Just The Physical Elements. FM Insight Consulting Ltd. http://facilityleadership.com/blog/management-and-leadership/facility-management-is-about-more-than-just-the-physical-elements

Abdullahi, I., & Yusoff, W. Z. W. (2018). Effect of the performance of physical and non-physical facilities on higher institutional facilities. Journal of Facilities Management.

IWFM. (2022). Professional Development. Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management. http://www.iwfm.org.uk

Isa, N. M., Kamaruzzaman, S. N., Mohamed, O., Jaapar, A., & Asbollah, A. Z. (2016). Facilities management practices in Malaysia: a literature review. In MATEC Web of Conferences (Vol. 66, p. 00054). EDP Sciences.

Keeping, M. & Shiers, D. (1996). The "green" refurbishment of commercial property. Facilities, 15-19.

Cant, M. (2004). Collaboration in infrastructure services in regional retail centres: Value-added contribution of facilities management at Birmingham Bullring. Journal of Facilities Management, 215-225.

Sustainability. (2014). Executive Perspective: The Business of Building Green – Singapore’s Approach.

Wang, S., Wan, J., Li, D. & Zhang, C. (2016). Implementing Smart Factory of Industries 4.0: An Outlook. vol. 2016.

Weyer, S., Schmitt, M., Ohmer M. & Gorecky, D. (2015). Standardization as the crucial challenge for highly modular, multi - vendor production systems. IFAC- Papers On Line, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 579 –584.

Kamis, A., Alwi, A., & Yunus, F. A. (2017). Integration of green skills in sustainable development in technical and vocational education. International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications, 7, 2248-962208.

Mertineit, K. D., & Huyen, D. T. (2016). Greening TVET in Viet Nam: sustainable development, green economy, and the role of greening TVET.

Ramlee, M., Irdayanti, M. N. & Nurul Nazirah, M. I. M. (2019). Awareness of Green Technology among Engineering Technology Students. Journal of Engineering Science and Technology, (Special Issue on ICEES2018), 1-8. https://jestec.taylors.edu.my/Special%20issue%20on%20ICEES2018/ICEES2018_01.pdf

United Nations. (2015). The 17 Goals. Department of economic and Social Affairs Sustainable Development. https://sdgs.un.org/goals

UNESCO. (2016). Strategy for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) (2016-2021). United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. France. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000245239/PDF/245239eng.pdf.multi

Pavlova, M. (2014). TVET as an Important Factor in Country’s Economic Development. SpringerPlus, 3(1), 1-2. https://springerplus.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2193-1801-3-S1-K3

UNEVOC Network. (2019). Green Skills for SDGs. Generic Green Skills for TVET. https://greenskillsresources.com/category/green-skills-for-sdgs

European Commission. (2021). Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion. Centres of Vocational Excellence. European Union. https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1501#:~:text=Centres%20of%20Vocational%20Excellence%20are,the%20skills%20needs%20of%20companies.

3LoE. (2021). Three-Level Centres of Professional Excellence: Qualification, Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Green Economy. European Union. https://3-loe.eu/

KeTTHA. (2017). Green Technology Master Plan Malaysia 2017-2030. Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water. https://www.pmo.gov.my/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Green-Technology-Master-Plan-Malaysia-2017-2030.pdf

The Edge Market. (2021). The Twelfth Malaysia Plan 2021-2025: A Prosperous, Inclusive and Sustainable Malaysia. The Edge Communications Sdn. Bhd. https://www.theedgemarkets.com/microsite/12-malaysia-plan

Kamis, A., Mustapha, R., Wahab, N. A., & Ismail, B. L. H. (2016). Green Skills as an added-value element in producing competent students. International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications, 6(11), 12-21.

LinkedIn. (2022). Global Green Skills Report 2022. https://economicgraph.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/economicgraph/en-us/global-green-skills-report/global-green-skills-report-pdf/LI-Green-Economy-Report-2021-land-R9.pdf

Ismail, J. Bin, Chik, C. T., & Hemdi, M. A. (2021). TVET Graduate Employability: Mismatching Traits Between Supply and Demand. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 11(13), 223–243. https://hrmars.com/papers_submitted/8522/tvet-graduate-employability-mismatching-traits-between-supply-and-demand.pdf

Da Wan, C., Sirat, M., & Razak, D. A. (2018). Education in Malaysia towards a developed nation.

Vona, F., Marin, G., Consoli, D., & Popp, D. (2015). Green skills (No. w21116). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w21116/w21116.pdf

United Nations. (2019). The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development. Department of economic and Social Affairs. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/24797GSDR_report_2019.pdf

Koh, K. S., & Ammar, S. B. M. F. (2019). An overview of renewable and non-renewable energy demand as well as development status in Malaysia. Chem Sci Biomol Eng, 1(1), 101.

Pavlova, M. (2018). Fostering inclusive, sustainable economic growth and “green” skills development in learning cities through partnerships. International Review of Education, 64(3), 339-354. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11159-018-9718-x

Piaw, C. Y. (2008). Asas statistik penyelidikan. Mc-Graw Hill (Malaysia).

Ramlee, M. (2015). Green and Sustainable Development for TVET in Asia. Innovation of Vocational Technology Education, 11(2). doi:10.17509/invotec.v11i2.2147 https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/invotec/article/view/2147/1510

Ramli, S., Rasul, M. S., & Affandi, H. M. (2018). Sustainable Development: Needs of Green Skills in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(9), 1082–1095. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/33f8/2cd37a6c0ae93211e85705ea17518e176a0a.pdf

Thirupathy, S., & Mustapha, R. (2020). Development of Secondary School Students’ Green Skills for Sustainable Development. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 10(3), 160–173. https://hrmars.com/papers_submitted/7032/development-of-secondary-school-students-green-skills-for-sustainable-development.pdf

Yeung, S. M. C. (2015). A mindset of entrepreneurship for sustainability. Corporate Ownership and Control, 13(1CONT 7), 797-811. http://www.virtusinterpress.org/IMG/pdf/COC__Volume_13_Issue_1_Fall_2015_Continued7_.pdf#page=71

Samarasinghe, R. (2015). Green Attitudes And Behavior Gap; Obstruction To Be Green. http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/bitstream/handle/123456789/6656/Green%20Attitudes%20And%20Behavior%20Gap;%20Obstruction%20To%20Be%20Green.pdf?sequence=1

Jordan, C., Doherty, W. J., Jones-Webb, R., Cook, N., Dubrow, G., & Mendenhall, T. J. (2012). Competency-based faculty development in community-engaged scholarship: A diffusion of innovation approach. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 16(1), 65-95. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ975801.pdf

Cabral, C., & Dhar, R. L. (2020). Green competencies: Insights and recommendations from a systematic literature review. Benchmarking: An International Journal. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/BIJ-11-2019-0489/full/html

Majumdar, S. (2010) Greening TVET: Connecting the Dots in TVET for Sustainable Development. Paper presented in the 16th IVETA-CPSC International Conference on Education for Sustainable Development in TVET´ Manila, Philippines.

Setiawan, A. (2017). Identification of green skills acquisition in Indonesian TVET curricula. In AIP Conference Proceedings (Vol. 1887, No. 1, p. 020074). AIP Publishing LLC. https://aip.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/1.5003557

Pavlova, M. (2017). Green skills as the agenda for the competence movement in vocational and professional education. In Competence-based Vocational and Professional Education (pp. 931-951). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-41713-4_43

Abd Hamid, M. Z., Hassan, Z., Nordin, M. S., Kamin, Y., Atan, N. A., & Suhairom, N. (2019). Generic Green Skills in Teaching and Learning: Meaning and Implementation. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 7(12A), 121-126.

Howes, M., McKenzie, M., Gleeson, B., Gray, R., Byrne, J., & Daniels, P. (2010). Adapting ecological modernisation to the Australian context. Journal of integrative environmental sciences, 7(1), 5-21. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46062585_Adapting_Ecological_Modernisation_to_the_Australian_Context

Yin, R.K. (1994). Case Study Research – Design and Methods 2ND Edition. California, Sage Publications

Gomm, R., Hammersley, M., & Foster, P. (2000). Case study and generalization. Case study method, 98-115.

Cherry, K. (2020, April 7). When to Use Surveys in Psychological Research. Dotdash Media. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-survey-2795787

Ball, H. L. (2019). Conducting Online Surveys. Journal of Human Lactation, 35(3), 413-417.

Sincero, S. M. (2012). Advantages and Disadvantages of Surveys.

Jones, T. L., Baxter, M., & Khanduja, V. (2013). A Quick Guide to Survey Research. Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 95. 5-7. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3964639/pdf/rcse9501-5.pdf

Noraini Idris. (2010). Penyelidikan dalam Pendidikan. Kuala Lumpur. McGraw Hill (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.

Bhandari, P. (2020, May 14). Population vs Sample: Definitions, Differences & Examples.

Hashim, Y. A. (2010). Determining sufficiency of sample size in management survey research activities. International Journal of Organisational Management & Entrepreneurship Development, 6(1), 119-130.

Krejcie, R.V., & Morgan, D.W., (1970). Determining Sample Size for Research Activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement.

Wright, K. B. (2017). Researching Internet-Based Populations: Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Survey Research, Online Questionnaire Authoring Software Packages, and Web

Ben-Shlomo Y, Brookes S, Hickman M. 2013. Lecture Notes: Epidemiology, Evidence-based Medicine and Public Health (6th ed.), Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.

Braun V. & Clarke V., 2006. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3, pp.77-101. www.QualResearchPsych.com.

Ministry of Education Malaysia. (2013). Executive Summary Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025: Preschool to Post-Secondary Education. https://www.pmo.gov.my/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Malaysia-Education-Blueprint-2013-2025.pdf

Brundtland, G. H. (1987). Our common future. United Nation, General Assembly. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development.

Hodges, C. P. (2005). A facility manager’s approach to sustainability. Journal of Facilities Management. Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 312-324.

IFMA. (2013). International Facility Management Association (IFMA). http://www.ifma.org/about/what-is-facility-management

Downloads

Published

2023-03-02

Issue

Section

Articles