Institutional networking and internationalization has been included as one of the institutional Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in most universities´ blueprints in Malaysia. The “eighth shift”, which is one particular strategy of the Malaysia Education Blueprint (Ministry of Higher Education 2013), specifically demands that internationalization initiatives are to intensify networking and collaboration with international institutions of higher education. For that reason, a networking and internationalization agenda is critically important for Malaysian Technical Universities. This paper discusses the role of networking and internationalization of universities for developing the academic staffs’ competency, focusing on staff mobility, regional collaboration as in the Regional Association for Vocational Teacher Education in Asia (RAVTE) and competencies through professional accreditation. Initially the paper explores the roles of networking and internationalization in the context of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and how it has been introduced and practiced in higher education, and then, we discuss how universities’ networking and internationalization contribute to staff mobility, research, and technical skills development.

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This paper highlights some of the initiatives undertaken by Malaysia in addressing social and economic challenges via TVET programmes in general and through TVET agency – industry collaborative efforts in particular. A brief description of the TVET programmes operated by the various agencies in Malaysia is to be presented, followed by examples of collaboration initiatives undertaken at the various levels of the TVET system. The issues and challenges encountered in their implementations are identified as factors that must be addressed to ensure the sustainability of future TVET collaborations.

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Petrochemical drilling operations consists of the most complicated and complex activities specifically from the perspective of occupational safety and health of drilling crew and labour. Because of the involvement of state of the art electrical and mechanical equipment in drilling operations most of the untrained drilling crew are facing critical and life threatening injuries during the handling of high-tech equipments worldwide. Improper and insufficient methods and approaches for the estimation and reorganization of onshore and offshore drilling operations and its associated activities are one of the main reasons for hazardous events and accidents. Therefore, this paper emphasizes and proposes an effective mix-method approach for the identification of hazardous activities and potential hazards for Malaysian, Saudi Arabian and Pakistani onshore and offshore drilling sites by adopting a sequential explanatory research design approach.

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