Training veterans for new career
AFTER serving the country for over 20 years and living a regimented military life, what happens to our army personnel upon retirement? Academicians from SEGi University and Colleges and Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) feel that they may struggle to adapt to their new lives.
SEGi University and Colleges and UPNM have inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to form an entrepreneurship programme for retiring servicemen undergoing pre-retirement training with the Armed Forces Ex-Servicemen Affairs Corporation (Perhebat).
SEGi vice-chancellor Prof Dr Patrick Kee said some may struggle to find jobs due to their lack of skills outside of the army.
“The business entrepreneurship programme can help them to carry on with their careers,” he said.
SEGi University and Colleges executive director and group president Datuk Mohamed Azahari Kamil said the training focuses on entrepreneurship in sales and marketing as well as identifying possible opportunities in business.
“We have signed with Avon and are working with them to provide salesmanship training.
“We’re also looking at the possibility to work and link up with Tekun Nasional for financing possible business activities,” he said, adding that industry practitioners will be roped in to be part and parcel of the training programme.
The programme will kickstart in December and will see the participation of 50 to 100 retiring servicemen.
Mohamed Azahari said the programme ranges from three to six months, adding that participants will be given certificates of attendance upon completion.
Brig Gen Prof Datuk Dr Shohaimi Abdullah who is SEGi deputy vice-chancellor, Research, Innovation & Quality Assurance, said the programme helps the transformation process for retiring servicemen from their regimented military life to becoming business people. “The aim is to make them job creators. “The beauty of our programme is that we guide them, give them theoretical classes and groom them to develop an interest in business,” he said.
He said UPNM will provide them with lessons on how to blend in with the community and help them adapt from living a regimented life to a civilian life.
SEG International Berhad chairman Tan Sri Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas believes that entrepreneurship cannot be taught through the traditional textbook method.
“Entrepreneurship cannot be taught from textbooks or by teachers who are not entrepreneurs themselves so we are hoping to have successful entrepreneurs, young and old, to come in and teach, share their experiences and inspire the retiring servicemen to become entrepreneurs,” he said.
Also present were UPNM vice-chancellor Gen Tan Sri Zulkifli Zainal Abidin, deputy vice-chancellor (Academic and International) Prof Emeritus Dr Tengku Mohd Tengku Sembok, assistant vice-chancellor (Industry Relations and Corporate Affairs) Datuk Dr Jesbil Singh and Higher Education Ministry director-general Prof Datuk Dr Asma Ismail.