The Malaysia branch of telecommunications equipment company on 20 May 2020 unveiled the ASEAN Academy, a dedicated training module to empower Malaysian digital talent and support the country’s vision to be a regional digital hub.
As part of this commitment, the tech giant aims to nurture 50,000 Malaysian talents over the next five years and investing RM3 million across various businesses and technology sectors. The academy will be providing more than 3,000 ICT courses involving 100 skilled trainers.
Malaysia’s Minister of Communications stated that the ASEAN Academy in Malaysia is the first in the Asia Pacific region which plays an important role in ICT development towards digital economic growth.
It is more than ever, to nurture and develop local talent to ensure that they are well equipped with the proper ICT knowledge to adapt to this ever-changing globalisation landscape the Minister, who also officiated the launch, stated.
The minister expressed that the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) and the telecom have had a long collaborative relationship in ICT since 2001 when the firm was first established.
The government hopes to have more successful collaborations in the future between both parties to steer the nation’s digital economy on the right path.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Malaysia branch stated that we all are working to adapt to this new normal of social distancing, the importance of having a strong digital network and infrastructure is more obvious now than ever.
“The backbone of a strong digital network and infrastructure remains with the people that build and maintain such services for Malaysians to enjoy. The training and programs provided by the ASEAN academy will empower local talents to be future-ready and actively contribute to accelerating the country’s digital transformation journey,” he concludes.
Addressing pain points
The academy’s ICT training programs and courses are designed to target government bodies, industry professionals and university students, providing a holistic approach in growing the country’s ICT ecosystem.
It will be implementing “established and diversified educational methods”, namely scenario-based and online live training, as well as overseas study tours. The academy will also provide multi-dimensional solutions for different types of talent and levels of need to ensure that these solutions effectively match the current talent gaps for enterprises.
The academy will also be addressing pain points in the country’s talent gap within three core pillars: ICT Industry Trend Guidance, Ecosystem Talent Enablement, and Skill Improvement. The first pillar is intended for personnel in governments and regulators, to raise awareness on 5G, AI, cloud industry trends and leading practices.
Ecosystem Talent Enablement is intended for college students, ICT practitioners and ecosystem partners, offering ICT technical training and certification as well as developer contests. Lastly, Skill Improvement is meant for managers, marketers and those working with enterprises, providing ICT technical training and business leadership courses.
The main training program from 2020 till 2021 will include courses surrounding 5G – specifically, on 5G Hot Topics, 5G business insights and 5G expert development – which will involve 4,000 trainees. There will also be cloud and AI talent development, which covers 1,800 trainees; HMS developer talent improvement (3,000 trainees); and Huawei ICT Academy & Competition (2,700 trainees).
The Malaysia branch of the telecom has had several collaborations with local higher learning institutions, as well as government agencies and state governments, since 2011. In 2017, the company inked an MoU with the Sarawak State Government to boost ICT talent by running a Sarawak Digital Youth Talent Development Program, in which 200 students graduated as Huawei Certified trainees.
More recently in 2019, Huawei signed another MoU to transform the Centre of Technical Excellence (CENTEXS) in Sarawak into a Digital Academy.
