Lucrative IT career
IS information technology ( IT) still worth learning? This question has been asked quite a bit, especially by parents concerned about the employment prospects of their children.
They worry that there are too many IT graduates in the market since IT has been a popular course for many years.
Not only are IT graduates still valuable to industries and exposed to endless opportunities, but they are also the key group of people to facilitate Malaysian industries’ evolution into a higher form.
Specifically, IT could be the gamechanger in solving issues with jobs that are dangerous, dirty or difficult ( 3D), a recently much- discussed topic.
As an essential component to innovation and productivity across a wide range of sectors, IT is also at the very centre of the way we work, learn, communicate, socialise and entertain ourselves.
This creates exciting career opportunities, so studying IT can be one of the best preparations for the future.
Prof Govindan Marthandan, deputy dean ( academic) at Multimedia University’s ( MMU) Graduate School of Management ( GSM) and expert in operations management, believes that IT, if properly used and guided by human compassion, can change not only how society looks at 3D jobs, but also ensure long- term prosperity for everyone.
“IT is an extremely versatile tool and in it resides many solutions to our daily problems. IT enables complex calculations and model- making, allowing us to depict endless number of complicated what- if scenarios,” he says.
What such extensive simulations afford us is the ability to figure out how we could do things in different and better ways.
Many 3D jobs exist because of the waste generated in the manufacturing of goods, and IT allows us to map out the entire process in the virtual world and pinpoint places where waste could be reduced.
“It would be unrealistic to hope that we could completely eliminate danger and waste, but the fact is that IT can be used for detecting waste, so we should take advantage of this.
“We can and should deploy IT to implement preventive maintenance so that we can spot and solve problems before they become not only dirty and difficult, but also dangerous,” he adds.
Such systems are already employed in various forms in some parts of the world. One example is the tsunami warning alert.
Some regions already have this in place, but before the earthquake and tsunami in 2004, the Indian Ocean did not have it. Had it been in place at that time, probably far fewer lives would have been lost.
While the comparison to a tsunami warning system might seem out of place, for Prof Govindan, it is not.
“It is a system used to anticipate potential problems, and there is no reason we cannot scale it to manufacturing, construction or other activities. Other countries have already deployed them, so we should really give more attention to this.”
Deploying these IT solutions across Malaysian industries will open up many opportunities for IT graduates for years to come.
As countless systems will have to be created, corrected and optimised, the country needs more IT experts to cater to the demand of producing state- of- the- art IT systems. For this reason, IT jobs will continue to be a lucrative career in the future.
Prof Govindan gives an example from the Malaysian banking industry. “Decades ago, the banking industry was mostly a manual operation and the image of bank workers was not stellar.
“Things were slow; to improve efficiency, computers were introduced and IT allowed the banking system to be highly efficient and profitable.”
According to Prof Dr Ahmad Rafi Mohamed Eshaq, president of MMU, this is perhaps the best time for students to develop their IT expertise.
“Malaysians are becoming more aware of the need to modernise the 3D jobs because, in doing so, it would help boost the Malaysian economy while at the same time reduce our dependency on foreign labour,” he says.
With regard to the best university to pursue IT studies, Prof Rafi says, “For many years, MMU has been recognised as a world- class university for IT and technology studies.”
As part of its 20th anniversary celebration, MMU is offering automatic rebates and scholarships for all students who enrol in its April intake.
Foundation students are assured rebates of 5%, while bachelor’s students get 10% off. On top of these rebates, qualified students stand to enjoy scholarships worth up to RM4mil.
For more information, visit www. mmu. edu. my or call 1300 800 668.