Monday May 22, 2017
By Ruswahida Ibnu Ruslan ruswahida@unimap.edu.my
Nearly fifty employers came out on May 15th till May 16th to UniMAP’s Mega Career Fair – NICE II 2017. Connecting the university’s and the nation’s brightest engineering students with leading companies and organizations, the fair was aptly named the Northern Industrial Career Engagement II (NICE II).
NICE II was open to all students of higher and technical education institutions, with a focus specifically on those in the northern region. NICE II provided an opportunity for prospective employers from a wide range of industries to meet with engineering students interested in joining their team, with positions spread out across Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia. What was even more exciting is that in excess of 400 openings were available across ASEAN region, bringing a total of over 1000 positions up for grabs. “We’re very proud of our career fair track record in attracting a diverse array of employers to our campus,” said Dato’ Prof Zul Azhar Zahid Jamal, Vice Chancellor of UniMAP. “The great success of our on-campus career fair speaks of UniMAP’s commitment in engaging industrial key players and the quality relationship we have with our stake holders out there”. Moving forward away than just job and internship, industries have a greater role to play in University’s joint programmes. Dato’ Zul has reiterated his stand on the importance of academia-industry bonding as it is in tandem with Ministry of Higher Education policies. NICE II was officiated by Secretary General, Ministry of Works, Dato’ Zohari Haji Akob. Dato’ Zohari Haji Akob whom also gave a technical talk prior to officiating NICE II, he delivered a talk on “Human Resource in Construction Industry” with over 500 plus students and academicians attending it.
Unlike its inaugural fair in 2015, NICE II was unique in that it embraces the quadruple helix model. UniMAP acknowledges the importance of its relationship with industries, government agencies and the wider community. NICE II is a testament to the recognition: UniMAP as the organiser, government linked and private companies provide funds and sponsorship for the event, while local enterprises in the state of Perlis provide support in-kind. In addition to the booths, visitors will also get the chance to attend career talks and participate in workshops, entrance for which is free. Coffee sessions are also arranged with captains of industry, providing students opportunity to obtain first-hand insights into industry.
Santai GPS CEO Ms.Zainab stated “Malaysian employers are willing to pay premiums for technologically savvy fresh graduates. The fresh graduates in engineering, R&D and Project Management have an opportunity to start out at possibly more than RM3.500 per month and high-tech graduates 27% more based on Robert Walter’s report”. Adax a MDEC initiated company, focusing on Data Analytics, were also impressed on the initiative by UniMAP bringing students and exposing them to these new job landscape of data mining.
myStarjob.com team whom participated in the career fair, had a face to face sessions with the students in guiding and preparing them for job interviews. myStarjob.com team were impressed with UniMAP’s students participation and attentiveness during the engagement.
NICE II has been made possible with the drive provided by the Vice-Chancellor of UniMAP, Dato’ Prof Dr Zul Azhar Zahid Jamal. The initiative and the coming together of the various parties for NICE II resonate well with his 2017 keynote address in which he emphasized on the importance of the university reaching out to industries and being actively engaged with the wider community. The initiative of NICE II by UniMAP has been facilitated under the responsibility of Centre for Industrial and Governmental Collaboration (CIGC). CIGC believes NICE II has been a great success with over 4000++ plus students thronged to the fair for two days in search for both jobs and internship placements. 98% of the industry participated have stated in a feedback by CIGC of their participation again if NICE III is organized in the coming year. CIGC also believes the career fair provides a platform for university academicians’ to engage with industry on other collaboration especially in the R&D niche.