MoU to equip students with real work skills
UNIVERSITI Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with JobStreet in an effort to boost graduates’ job security amid a challenging job market.
Taking proactive measures to ensure graduates continue to be in high demand with potential employers, UTAR and JobStreet came up with the JobStreet Student Portal.
The portal – which is also mobile responsive – enables students to apply for various internship positions with local as well as multinational companies.
UTAR president Prof Dr Ewe Hong Tat said the portal simplifies processes making it easy to use for internship applications.
“Our partnership with JobStreet goes beyond academic learning.
Instead, our aim is to nurture students to be forward-thinking global professionals and entrepreneurs who are knowledgeable, competent and ethical life-long learners who would bring a positive impact to society.
“The purpose of the JobStreet Student Portal is to help students land their first roles in the working world,” he said.
Besides the student job portal, Prof Ewe shared that various initiatives were also introduced to ensure that their students are equipped with the relevant knowledge and expertise to succeed in the working world.
“The MoU also covers both parties exploring and conducting joint research collaboration activities, as well as joint academic-industrial collaborative activities including conferences, webinars, workshops, publications, and seminars.”
JobStreet Malaysia country manager Gan Bock Herm described the MoU as a “collective effort to ensure UTAR students stay above the rest”.
“The current job market is challenging for both experienced workers, as well as fresh graduates, as companies take steps to review their operations amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown.
“However, we have since seen progressive recovery of the job market with restrictions being eased.”
On JobStreet, Gan said that there is a 300% increase in the number of roles for fresh graduates over this period, bringing the total number to 1,700.
From a recent JobStreet Covid-19 survey, findings indicated that 25% of the employers surveyed will be looking to hire again in the next six months and this will include fresh graduates.
He said that the portal’s research demonstrated that the top five industries still hiring are information technology (IT), food and beverage, science and technology, government and health and safety sectors.
“The demand for new roles such as digital marketing analyst, social media executive, data science executive, big data analyst, junior mobile application developer and UX designer is even higher as companies move into digitalising their business,” said Gan, adding that digital and IT skills are highly sought after.