Providing graduates with up-to-date skills
INFORMATION and Communication Technology (ICT) has long been one of the popular programmes among school leavers embarking on their tertiary education.
Nevertheless, the dynamic, everchanging and innovative nature of the ICT industry demands that graduates of the discipline should possess the necessary and up-to-date skills and knowledge to excel in their jobs.
Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TAR College) has constantly emphasised on active industry collaboration to ensure that its ICT programmes remain industry-relevant.
TAR College, through its School of Arts & Science (SAS), has forged links with many industry leaders to facilitate the latest knowledge and technology transfer to the classroom.
One such example is the collaboration with SAP, the market leader in enterprise application software, via the MyUniAlliance-SAP programme.
Under this programme, the Business Information Systems programme students will be trained to use the SAP software to provide practical exposure to complement the theoretical aspects of SAP which have been embedded in the programme curriculum.
SAP knowledge is highly prized and according to Robert Walters Global Salary Survey report for 2012, ICT professionals with SAP training are in demand and are among the highest paid IT professionals in Malaysia.
SAS has also established strong partnership with IBM with the aim of exposing IBM software technology to the students. The relationship reached a key milestone when IBM selected TAR College as the first institution of higher learning in Malaysia to set up its Centre of Excellence for Software Technologies in July 2011.
The centre trains the students with IBM software such as IBM DB2, IBM Rational Software Architect, IBM Rational Application Developer for Websphere and IBM Lotus Notes in programmes such as Business Information Systems, Information Systems Engineering, Internet Technology and Interactive Software Technology offered at SAS.
One fundamental knowledge that ICT professionals must possess is networking and hence, TAR College has collaborated with Cisco Systems (Cisco), the global leader in networking, to ensure that students are wellequipped with the necessary knowledge and skills.
Through the collaboration, the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) curriculum is incorporated into Information Systems Engineering, Internet Technology and Microelectronics with Computer Communications programmes.
This paves the way for the students to pursue CCNA professional certification concurrent with their academic programme at TAR College so that they may obtain the certification prior to graduation.
The ICT programme curriculum is further fortified with the integration of Microsoft technologies.
With the partnership between SAS and Microsoft, students of the TAR College ICT programmes will benefit from learning the latest and advanced technologies from the software giant such as Microsoft Visual Studio (with focus on VB.Net and C#), Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Expression Web and Microsoft XNA, which are incorporated into the programme curriculum.
The intensity of the industry collaboration driven by SAS has resulted in TAR College recently being awarded as one of the Most Engaged Institutions of Higher Learning in Industry – Academia Collaboration by Multimedia Development Corporation in September 2012.
The ICT-related programmes offered at TAR College include Diploma and Advanced Diplomacum-Bachelor of Science in Business Information Systems, Information Systems Engineering, Internet Technology, Interactive Software Technology as well as combinations in Computer Science and Management Mathematics/ Computer Mathematics/Statistics, and Microelectronics with Computer Communications.
For more information, log on to http://www.tarc.edu.my/sas/main. htm. Alternatively, visit www.tarc. edu.my.