The first cohort of 115 trainees who successfully completed the MSC Malaysia Undergraduate Apprenticeship and Development Programme or UGRAD received their certificates from the Minister of Higher Education, Dato' Seri Mohamed Khalid Nordin at a ceremony at a hotel in Putrajaya on 7 August.

In interesting observation was the disproportionate ratio of women to men among the UGRAD trainees. MDeC officials could not adequately explain this phenomenon, except to speculate that it could be unique to this batch of UGRAD trainees, whilst the ratio could either be balanced or the other way around in its other programmes. Another possible explanation was that women outnumber men in the institutes of higher learning anyway, so this could just be a microcosm of that demographic.

Launched by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) at the end of last year, UGRAD aims to bridge the gap between the theoretical education provided by institutes of higher learning and the needs of the industries to increase their chance of being employed.

Under the programme, selected university students undergo an internship with MSC Status companies for between two and six months, during which time they gain experience and skills not only in the type of work but they also gain exposure to teamwork, consultation, collaboration, culture and other aspects of working within an organisation, which makes them more employable in a highly competitive job market which is being flooded by graduates produced by the many more local universities today than there were previously.

When this writer interviewed a chief operating officer of a well-known online job agency in 2004 about the problem of graduate unemployment, he explained that employers wanted graduates with at least one years work experience which posed a chicken-and-egg dilemma for fresh graduates who cannot get one years experience if they don't get employed but they will not get employed if they do not have one years experience. He advised graduates to not be choosy and to even be willing to accept menial jobs in cafe's like Starbucks.

That's certainly a far cry from when this writer got a job in March, 1980 as a process engineer with National Semiconductor Electronics in Senawang, three months after returning to Malaysia after graduation. Well, employment opportunities were certainly very much better for fresh graduates back in those good old days, when the chicken-and-egg dilemma was much easier to break out of.

Testimonies

Shamir Mohammed, one of the UGRAD programme participants from Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) underwent a six months apprenticeship with multinational wafer fabrication company Infineon Technologies in Kulim.

“Prior to my apprenticeship, I had little knowledge of what the industry demanded,” said Shamir. “However, while there, I was given the task to develop a system tool and saw the spirit of teamwork among the technicians to solve technical problems with the production equipment and also how they shared their thoughts in brainstorming sessions and implemented them soon afterwards. I also saw how if seemingly small issues such as a bent screw was overlooked, it can lead to more expensive problems later on. My stint with Infineon enhanced my technical knowledge, creativity and perspectives further, and I also developed self confidence and communication skills,” he added.

Another trainee, Lea Johnny from Universiti Tun Abdul Razak did her apprenticeship at Scope International, a shared services unit of Standard Chartered Bank which provides software development, IT services and other services to its branches in 70 countries.

“At first I underwent training at the Scope International Malaysia Academy (SIMA) before I was released to work in Scope International. SIMA develops people to work hard and play hard and at Scope I learned how to work as a team in a banking operation. Wile there I was exposed to many different professions and the importance of technology in the world of banking and finance.  now work with Standard Chartered Bank,” said Johnny.

About 70% of SIMA trainees involved in the UGRAD programme were offered full-time employment upon completion of their internships. On the 115 successful trainees, 74 were from Scope International.

Nur Fathhiya from KL Metropolitan University was attached to Forest Interactive which develops SMS TV games, premium and bulk SMS solutions. “While there I designed a web-based global bulk SMS solution, as well as the website with Flash and images which show avail;able operators in other countries,” said Fathiya.

The UGRAD programme is part of MDeC's K-Worker (Knowledge-Worker) Development Initiative (KDI), which aims to produce 10,000 K-Workers through UGRAD and its other programmes.

According to MDeC chairman, Tan Sri Abdul Halim Ali, about 100,000 jobs in IT-related fields are expected to be created by 2010 and a recent Frost & Sullivan study showed that 50,000 new jobs will be created by MSC Malaysia companies over the next three years.

“Despite the challenging economic environment, over 6,700 new jobs were created by the MSC Malaysia community over the last one year,” said Halim.

Another 285 trainees are currently undergoing UGRAD programmes and Halim expects UGRAD to altogether produce 600 trainees this year.