<b>Job preparation:</b> A good grounding

Universiti Kuala Lumpur has been given the mandate to produce 1,000 technopreneurs by 2010. Associate Professor Dr Roslan Ismail, who heads the university's Malaysian Institute of Information Technology, tells SUZIEANA UDA NAGU the steps he has taken to achieve the target. MALAYSIA’s dream of becoming a major exporter of IT (information technology) services and software is unlikely to materialise soon, say industry observers.

One major setback is that Malaysia lacks graduates with the right skills and qualifications demanded by the global IT industry.

The only way to bring local IT talent up to speed, say experts, is to equip them with plenty of on-the-job experience.

Universiti Kuala Lumpur’s Malaysian Institute of Information Technology (MIIT) dean Associate Professor Dr Roslan Ismail agrees.

As a consultant on numerous forestry and IT-related projects, Roslan knows that the best way to learn about the IT industry is to be immersed in it.

“This helps prepare students for their future roles in the industry. So university courses must be shaped in such a way that allow students to prepare themselves for the job market,“ he says.

However, many IT courses available today are not designed to enhance employment opportunities.

Just two years ago, it was reported that many tertiary institutions were churning out IT courses which featured outdated syllabuses rendering many graduates jobless.

That the majority of the 20,217 jobless graduates registered with the Human Resource Ministry had studied IT is a telling comment on the state of the courses.

When Roslan joined UniKL two years ago, he felt compelled to design programmes that were up to date and relevant to industry needs.

“MIIT emphasises (the importance of) a dynamic and effective curriculum. This means that (the syllabus) is revised regularly and case studies of projects conducted by our lecturers are used instead of those found in textbooks,“ says Roslan.

This is part of UniKL’s move to nurture the research and development culture among its lecturers; encourage entrepreneurial activities among students and faculty members; and strive for programme recognition in order to achieve its vision to be the premier entrepreneurial technical institution in Malaysia.

The Multimedia Development Corporation aims to produce some 2,700 technopreneurs by 2010 through partnerships with universities to fill job vacancies in the IT sector.

And UniKL has been given the mandate to produce 1,000 technopreneurs under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006-2010).

Consistent with these objectives, students at MIIT are given a good grounding in their fields.

“Our first-year students spend up to seven weeks on an intensive foundation programme,“ says Roslan.

In their second year, they are introduced to subjects that prepare them for a future in technopreneurship — from creative problem-solving and starting a new venture up to managing a digital firm.

By their third year, students are ready to undergo industrial training.

“During industrial training, students are encouraged to identify problems and think of systems or programmes that address them,“ says Roslan.

Students continue to focus on problem-solving as they work on their final-year projects which were inspired by their practical training stints.

At MIIT, juniors learn from seniors who had accumulated a body of experience with regard to industrial training. The database is readily available to all juniors.

“Juniors may even pick up where their seniors left off. This ensures continuity of a project and indicates a sustained effort to improve a particular system or solution,“ he adds.

Significantly, students stand to gain from their problem-solving experience because “the process pushes students to be inquisitive”, as Roslan puts it.

“The key to identifying problems and the future direction of the IT industry is to have a macro view of it. This allows students to create a system or product that would benefit the industry and society.“

Come graduation day students would have identified their niche areas and possessed specialised knowledge in the sectors of their choice.

“They can use their IT skills to penetrate the health, education, forestry and entertainment areas, for example,“ says Roslan, adding that graduates have to be flexible to survive the knowledge economy.

Currently, MIIT students have already been exposed to diverse projects, thanks to the UniKl’s tie-ups with the public and private sectors.

One such initiative is an early warning health system it is developing for Selangor’s Department of Health, which is inspired by the EISS (the European Influenza Surveillance Scheme), a pan-European network established in 1996 and covers 22 countries to reduce morbidity and mortality due to influenza in the continent.

Roslan’s extensive experience in forestry has also influenced MIIT to set in motion at least three forest management systems.

“We are working at the cutting edge of forestry-related technology. The forest management system software will, (among other things), facilitate tree inventory process of pre-felling data collation which can reveal potential damage as well as estimate future timber production.

“With this technology, we can create a simulation of the distribution of trees 30 years from now.“

Roslan adds that these products have a market not only in Malaysia but also other tropical countries.

He believes that forestry is already a niche area for UniKL which has created products related to forestry, timber plantation and nursery.

The next step is to conduct special training for foresters all over the world through the institution’s solution centres which will be handling many of its research and product development enterprise.

“From here, we can create commercial spin-offs. These solution centres will constantly create new products and provide support. This, in my view, is the only way to meet the target of developing technopreneurs.“

UniKL has what it takes to lead the IT industry, says Roslan, who is not too keen on heavy reliance on industry practitioners.

“As researchers, it is the academicians’ role to create new knowledge which would help industry and not vice versa.“

Roslan is not discouraging linkages between university and industry. He believes that there should be a healthy competition between the two.

“Many lecturers have been teaching for too long and they are out of touch with industry practices. They should strive to be consultants on a variety of projects like many foreign academicians,“ says Roslan, naming Professor Jeffrey Sachs as an example.

Sachs is a leading international economic adviser and director of the Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of sustainable development as well as professor of health policy and management at Columbia University in the United States.

“Many universities in the West hire professors who are also consultants. These academics draw students and organisations from all over the world.“

It is a different story in Malaysia “partly because the local tertiary education system has a different view of academicians, especially those from public tertiary institutions, being involved in activities other than teaching”.

Roslan hopes that this will soon change. He believes that assuming leadership will help universities solve the problem of jobless graduates.

Job preparation: A good grounding