A fruitful partnership
IN an increasingly competitive job market, it has become even more vital for information technology (IT) graduates to possess the practical skills and resources necessary to rise above the competition and thrive in the workforce.
Over the last few years the Department of Information Technology at HELP University has been successfully working with its Industry Advisory Board (IAB) members and industry partners to prepare its graduates for the challenges of IT employment.
With experienced IAB members, who are also respected leaders in the IT industry such as HT Consulting, TMS, Money On Line (MOL), SAS, IBM, Microsoft and Gamonster, the HELP IT Department has benefited from their experience and knowledge. This valuable feedback was used to create and enhance the IT courses with emphasis on practical career skills, as well as solid theoretical knowledge.
HELP University Department of Information Technology head Dr Sien Ven Yu is pleased with the results the initiative has yielded.
“The close collaboration with our IAB members and industry partners has ensured that our IT graduates are industry ready and their skills, knowledge and experience match industry expectations. Our graduates are in demand and have been offered jobs in leading organisations such as Accenture, IBM, Mimos, Maxis, Shell, Citibank and KPMG,” said Dr Sien.
To underline the importance of IT and the role of the IAB members, the IAB co-chair, Ghanesh Kumar Bangah, emphasised, “IT is no longer a secondary or support industry; it is the industry of the future and some of the biggest companies worldwide are IT companies. Our aim in the Advisory Board is to encourage HELP students to look at the opportunities and inspire them to build Apple, Google and Facebook of the future in Malaysia.”
This collaboration was put to practice recently with the latest batch of final-year students who were tasked to work on real-world projects with the IAB members and industry partners. The students were mentored, taught and supervised by these experts and they developed hands-on skills that would stand them in good stead in the workforce.
Dr Sien emphasised the importance of significant project experience as it enables the students to apply the concepts they had learnt during the course of their studies and at the same time, compels them to learn new technologies and gain new technical skills.
“I believe that effective learning takes place when students are given assignments and projects that challenge their innovativeness and versatility. Of course, it does not mean our students work alone and in isolation; our expert lecturers and industry partners are always there to guide them,” said Dr Sien.
The final-year projects will be showcased this year at the HELP TECHDAY 2015 under the mentorship of IT organisations and the highlights of the exhibition include Mobile Apps, educational games and development software.
Group Rototype International chief executive officer and HELP University IT IAB co-chair Harres Tan said, “We believe that industry mentoring plays a complementary role to tertiary institutions. While students can acquire good fundamentals and foundation from the classroom, it is equally important to create platforms for students to apply their knowledge in real industry-related scenarios.
“With good guidance from experienced industry experts, this training method is vital in preparing students to enter the workforce.”
The Department of IT offers five programmes – Diploma in IT, Bachelor of IT (Hons), Bachelor of IT (Hons) Mobile Computing, Bachelor of IT (Hons) Business Information Management and Bachelor of Computer Science (Games and Interactive Media).
The next intake for the IT Diploma and undergraduate programmes is on April 20.
For more details, call 03-2716 2000, e-mail marketing@help.edu.my or log on to