TalentCorp Collaborates with USM in Producing Competitive and Industry Ready Graduates

CEO of PixArt Imaging, Huang Sen Huang (1st from left), CEO of TalentCorp, Shareen Dato' Abdul Ghani (2nd from left) and Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia, Professor Datuk Dr Asma Ismail (3rd from left) are pictured together at the collaboration agreement exchange ceremony at USM, Penang.

TalentCorp was in Penang last month for a collaboration agreement (CA) exchange with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) to address skills gaps in students towards producing high quality and high potential human capital. Under the CA, USM will be working with TalentCorp as the major funding agency, together with Silterra Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Intel Technology Sdn Bhd as industrial partners.

With the objective of producing future employees who are able to think creatively and critically as well as communicate and work independently, the CA will leverage TalentCorp’s Industry-Academia Collaboration (IAC) initiative to embed programme content into the university syllabus to address talent needs in the longer term.

The IAC initiative was launched in 2015 to encourage universities, government entities and industries to work together towards producing industry ready graduates. Since then, TalentCorp together with the Ministry of Higher Education and agencies such as MIDA and MDEC have been facilitating partnerships between employers and Malaysian universities, through several IACs related to priority sectors such as Electrical & Electronics (E&E), Global Business Services (GBS) and Rail.

According to TalentCorp's CEO, Shareen Dato' Abdul Ghani,

A 2014 World Bank-TalentCorp Survey on Graduate Employability found that 90 per cent of companies believed university graduates should have more industrial training by the time they graduate. This ultimately led to the introduction of the IAC initiative, under which universities, government entities and industries are able to collaborate on developing sector-specific curriculums for short courses, electives and industrial training.”

The exchange of CA between Shareen Dato' Abdul Ghani (2nd from left) and Professor Datuk Dr Asma Ismail (3rd from left) at USM, Penang.

Under the CA, all parties have agreed to appoint USM as the manager for the 3D (Demand, Driven and Development) programme, which is aimed at developing the first wireless Made in Malaysia System on Chip (SoC).

The programme recruited 25 Masters students from 9 public universities: USM, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTEM), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) and Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UNIMAP).

As the programme sponsor and facilitator, TalentCorp will take on all aspects of project management, which includes tracking and reporting, and progress reviews with stakeholders to ensure programme goals are met.

USM will act as project leader by mobilising and coordinating the necessary resources to achieve the programme objectives. This will include participating in the 3D programme as one of the IP project developers; to act as a host for the IP repository; to produce a minimum of 200 skilled graduates able to design IPs on SoCs; to ensure the curriculum on SoC is embedded in the curriculum of USM relevant schools or centres and the curriculum of participating universities within the programme; and to build sufficient software and hardware infrastructure to enable the design activities on SoC.

As industry partners to the initiative, Intel, Silterra, Opstar and Infinecs will act as primary consultants to coach and guide the programme’s participating universities as well as review, report, and assess curriculum enhancement to align with the 3D programme outcome.

The participating universities will also embed the programme findings into their curricula and by so doing, produce the talent required and provide lecturers with the necessary industry exposure. The universities must also ensure that by 31 January 2019, a minimum 200 students are enrolled in the embedded curriculum on SoC.

The CA exchange between USM and TalentCorp paves the way for Malaysian graduates to meet the rising challenges of Industry 4.0 through hands-on experience, advisory and consultative guidance, as well as leadership and mentorship enhancement.

The IAC structure addresses the skills gaps within the industry by ensuring knowledge transfer by industry experts onto students, which will contribute towards developing a sustainable talent pipeline and the establishment of an industry-relevant talent pool.

Tags: COLLABORATION AGREEMENT, INDUSTRY-ACADEMIA COLLABORATION, TALENTCORP, USM