KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) is planning to enhance the quality of its Japanese-style engineering education to enable its students to be recruited in higher-level industries.
MJIIT dean Professor Dr Ali Selamat said there was still a huge gap of employment mismatch between the needs of the Japanese industries and the talents or skills that are available to be absorbed into industries.
The Japanese-style education provided by MJIIT includes a variety of Japanese-oriented engineering programmes; and students will learn about the Japanese culture, language and skills to prepare them for the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (4IR), as well as to cater to the Look East Policy (LEP) 2.0.
Ali said one of the ways to close the gap was MJIIT’s Japan Day, or the Japan Career Day which is organised every year for students.
“About 40 Japanese companies in Malaysia will be invited to Japan Career Day to recruit our students. In a year, we would have produced around 200 undergraduates in mechanical engineering, chemical processing engineering and electronic system engineering.
“The number is still not enough as there is a huge demand by the Japanese companies for our talents and skills.
“We are also exploring on the ageing society in Japan. The Japanese government has introduced a policy on recruiting foreign talents to work in Japan. They have recruited about 50,000 foreign talents to work there.
“They not only accept those with talents and skills, but they want students and graduates to be able to understand the Japanese language and culture in order for them to fit in the society and company.
“We have also managed to communicate with the advanced industrial companies in Kyoto, Japan and they have about 400 companies over there. Every year, we send about 30 students to do their industrial training in Japan,” he said.
MJIIT, a government-to-government project between Malaysia and Japan, was established in 2011 and is a faculty under Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Kuala Lumpur.
MJIIT has played a pivotal role as Malaysia’s contributor of technical and professional workforce for the local industry, government agencies as well as multinational companies (MNCs).
The first phase of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Technical Cooperation Project was launched in 2013 and the five-year duration of the first phase recorded the formation of 18 i-Kohza (Japanese style laboratory), the development of a comprehensive Japanese engineering curriculum including mechanical programmes, electrical, green and environmental engineering technology, and technology management, joint-supervision programmes with professors in Japan, double degrees with various Japanese universities, practical training and exchange students between Japan and Malaysia.
MJIIT has sent 140 of its students for the global mobility programme which is held every year.
“In terms of employability, 23 students obtained the opportunity to work in various Japanese companies in Japan as of last year.
“A total of 50 students are working in Japanese companies in Malaysia and the rest are working in MNCs in Malaysia.
“We want to make this type of education accessible to students and at the same time we need to maintain the high quality and programmes that we have,” he added.
Ali said MJIIT was one of the faculties allowed up to a 50 per cent quorum of international student intake compared to other higher learning institutes.
Ali also said students could learn the Japanese values such as discipline, respect, team work, responsibility, time management, avoid making the same mistakes, possible zero errors and planning for success.
The students, he said, should adopt such values in order for them to be ready when working in Japan.
MJIIT has produced about 800 undergraduates since 2016 and Ali said a majority of them had secured jobs in Japan as well as in Malaysia.
A total of nine programmes — of which four are undergraduate and five postgraduate — are available in MJIIT.
Ali said MJIIT was offering a new programme called the Bachelor in Cyber Security Engineering which is in high demand.
He also said MJIIT was partnering with a few industries and the new programmes were expected to be rolled out next year.
“Another one is the Bachelor in Fintech & Blockchain Technology Management. This is also in demand and is related to blockchain, business administration and management. These are the two programmes that we plan to expand.
“Recently we opened up a Bachelor in Software Engineering. This programme also receives good demand.
“Programmes at the undergraduate level namely Electronics System Engineering, Mechanical Precision Engineering, and Chemical and Environment Engineering are also in high demand. Most of the graduates who took these programmes have secured a job which caters to 4IR,” said Ali.
On the Malaysia-Japan Week 2020, he said various activities would be held including the annual Premier Lecture.
Last year, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed delivered his Premier Lecture for the second time. Students as well as their teachers and parents would be invited to the labs, joint seminars on Japanese education and industries involvements, Career Day, Japanese culture activities and many more will be showcased during the week-long event.
MJIIT currently has a total of 1,500 students including international students, and is hoping to increase its intake in 2020.