Fastracked R&D Talent To Boost E&E Industry

PENANG, 14 August 2014 – To support Malaysia’s economic transformation, a total of 78 young Malaysian talents who have completed the PSDC FasTrack Phase 3 programme will form the new pipeline of Research & Development (R&D) talent required to accelerate the local Electronic and Electrical (E&E) sector.

Initiated by Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp) and the Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC) in 2011, the PSDC FasTrack is a 12-month apprenticeship programme designed to nurture local talent and train quality R&D engineers within a shorter time-span.

Based on a recent graduate employability survey conducted by TalentCorp and World Bank , employers found that local Malaysian graduates are not adequately prepared for the workforce, especially in terms of skills and competencies needed by industry. To address this mismatch of skills to industry needs, TalentCorp partnered with key employers and universities to produce ‘industry ready graduates’ through a three-pronged approach involving greater career awareness, industry exposure, and enhancing skills for employability.

"Fastrack has been developed together with industry to accelerate Malaysia’s top engineering graduates into an R&D career. This provides higher income opportunities for our Malaysian talent and at the same time, supports the transformation of Malaysia’s E&E sector into higher value added activities. Following from this successful collaboration between Government and industry, the next step is to develop greater industry-academia linkages by bringing elements of Fastrack into universities. Thus, providing exposure and access for a wider pool of budding Malaysian engineers to a career in R&D," said Johan Mahmood Merican, CEO of TalentCorp at the PSDC FasTrack Phase 3 Graduation Ceremony today.

Initiatives such as the PSDC FasTrack, which are based on industrial exposure, enhance graduates’ employability by giving them industry-relevant skills and experience. Under the programme, fresh graduates are provided a well-rounded learning experience with real-time projects and assignments via on-the-job-training with leading E&E companies in Malaysia.

To date, the PSDC has successfully trained more than 300 university graduates through three phases of the programme. More than 80% of the participants from the first and second phase have also secured permanent employment with their respective host companies.

For more information on TalentCorp’s initiatives, please visit www.talentcorp.com.my.