A Review of Industry Engagement in the Malaysian TVET Ecosystem

Industry engagement is central to the responsiveness of technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Yet, Malaysian evidence on the subject remains scattered across employability, curriculum relevance, educator capability, workplace learning, Industry 4.0 readiness, and the emerging shift toward Industry 5.0. This scoping review maps how industry engagement has been conceptualised and operationalised in the Malaysian TVET ecosystem between 2016 and 2026, and develops an integrative framework for engagement quality. The review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). The search configuration comprises Scopus (n = 120), ScienceDirect (n = 97), and a Google Scholar supplement of 227 relevance-ranked records identified with the query "industry" AND "TVET" AND "Malaysia". The final evidence base comprises 44 sources that met the eligibility criteria. The synthesis suggests four interdependent functions: policy and governance, curriculum co-design and educator development, work-integrated learning, and labour market feedback. Across these functions, engagement appears most consequential when it is continuous, reciprocal, and embedded in programme decisions, rather than limited to episodic consultation or placement provision. The proposed Ecosystem Industry Engagement Framework advances a synthesis-derived depth continuum spanning transactional, relational, and transformative engagement, together with two enabling conditions: engagement infrastructure and incentive symmetry. This may shift the analytical question from whether industry participates to the depth, continuity, reciprocity, and outcomes of that participation. The evidence remains mainly observational and context-dependent, making longitudinal validation of engagement quality and its graduate and employer outcomes a priority for Malaysian TVET research.

TVET; industry engagement; industry collaboration; Malaysia

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