Programme to prepare 100 varsity students for real job market

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Participants of the Infosys Foundation Programme.

KOTA KINABALU: One hundred students from 11 public universities in Malaysia completed a five-week Infosys Foundation Programme held at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) which ended yesterday.

The students taking part in the programme beginning June 30 to August 3 were from UIA, UKM, UMP, UMS, UNIKL, UNIMAS, USIM, UTEM, UTHM and UUM.

During their training, the students went through modules that encompassed computer system training, operating system concepts, problem solving techniques, TRIZ, programming and testing, object oriented concepts using JAVA, relational database management system and project on organisation standard.

According to Malaysia Education Ministry’s chairman in the technical committee with INFOSYS, Professor Datuk Dr Khairuddin Abdul Hamid, the foundation programme was world renowned and recognised by industries.

“The Malaysia education system has always been accused of failing to produce the type of graduates needed by the industries. That is why we are working with the industry to create skilled personnel under this programme,” he said.

He added that previous batches of students who had gone through similar programmes in the past were now employed, some of whom were working overseas.

Meanwhile, Multimedia Development Corporation Sdn Bhd chief operating officer Ng Wan Peng said that industry players were looking for graduates with good soft skills, problem solving skills and innovative.

She said there were 10,000 new jobs created at MSC every year and what they were doing in the programme was to equip young graduates for advancement into the IT (Information Technology) sector.

UMS School of Engineering and Information Technology Dean, Associate Professor Dr Rosalam Sarbatly said that the activity was aimed at improving the marketability of the graduates and prepare them for the real world.

He added that among the feedback they had received from industry players was that the graduates produced were not ready for the real market.

“This is blamed on the lack of linkages between universities and the industry. The programme seeks to address this,” he said.