Only 23% of Malaysian workforce has tertiary education compared to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries such as Singapore and Finland that have tertiary education with an average of 28% and around 35%, respectively. This study investigates perceived needs lifelong learning programmes for professionalisation among the workers. A survey was conducted on workers from the industries. Most of the workers felt that lifelong learning programmes provide personal satisfaction. In terms of perceived needs, workers from higher positions in industries need lifelong learning programmes to get better positions and better salaries as compared to those with lower positions in industries to get better job and education. Both groups have different preferences for means of learning whether face-to-face or online learning. The implications are that the government has to change their policy in terms of requirement for these companies to register with the Human Resource Department Fund so that their workers be subsidised for attending lifelong learning programmes and to encourage the participation of public higher learning institutions for providing online and weekend lifelong learning programmes to the workers.

中文翻译：

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终身学习对工业工人专业化的需求：机遇与挑战

与经济合作与发展组织国家（例如新加坡和芬兰）的高等教育水平分别为28％和35％左右相比，马来西亚只有23％的劳动力拥有高等教育。这项研究调查了感知需求的终身学习计划，以使工人专业化。对来自该行业的工人进行了调查。大多数工人认为，​​终身学习计划可提供个人满意度。在感知需求方面，与行业中职位较低的工人相比，行业中较高职位的工人需要终身学习计划才能获得更好的职位和更高的薪水。无论是面对面学习还是在线学习，这两个群体对学习方式的偏好都不一样。