The Impact of Vocational Teacher Training Program BIGV Towards the Development of Interpersonal Communication Skills Among Prospective Vocational Teachers

Abstract

Malaysia is generally one of the earliest countries in designing a higher education system that highlights the elements and challenges of Industry 4.0 issues, as already outlined and addressed in the 2015-2025 Malaysian Education Plan (Higher Education). As such, the self-development of teachers' human resources especially in the aspects of teacher communication skills has been developed and fully implemented in this Vocational Teacher Training Program (BIGV) curriculum. This program is a compulsory subject that must be taken by Bachelor Degree Teacher program in all Malaysia’s Universities. The sample of the study consists of 200 respondents divided into two groups that refers to the design of the experimental quasi study which is an experimental group of 158 prospective vocational teachers undergoing a comprehensive Bilingual Vocational Teacher Training (BIGV) program from the second semester student at the Faculty of Technical and Vocational Education, UTHM and control group of 42 prospective vocational teachers from second semester student in the Faculty of Technical and Vocational, UPSI. This research aims to study the effectiveness of Vocational Teacher Training (BIGV) Program towards developing the interpersonal communication skills acquisition level among the prospective vocational teachers. The researchers analyzed pre-test and post-test findings from both groups using the T-Test analysis. The results of the analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the number of min scores in pre-test and post-test for the two groups. Therefore, a further comprehensive action is needed to ensure that the implementation of the Vocational Teacher Training Program (BIGV) is successful to meet its objective in producing a more credible and sustainable teacher in the future.