KUALA LUMPUR, April 15, 2012 – IT professionals need to brush up on their interpersonal skills instead of merely focusing on their skills at dealing with machines if they want to stand a chance in today’s job market.
A study by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) revealed that one of the skills most sought after by employers and at the same time most lacking in IT(Information Technology) graduates is communication skills.
The dichotomy is such that on one side, there is a shortage of IT personnel, so much so that it could hinder the growth of the IT industry in Malaysia.
But on the other hand, there are many jobless IT graduates in the market, said Rototype International Group CEO Harres Tan.
Tan who is also an advisor to the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (Pikom) said its members have voiced their concerns over the IT manpower shortage.
“In our meetings they complain that there is not enough manpower to expand their operations even with many unemployed IT graduates in the job market.
“They find these graduates unemployable due to the misalignment of skill sets sought after by the industry and those the graduates possess,” he said at the launch of HELP University’s IT Industry Advisory Board (IAB).
Tan who is also chairman of the board, said due to the shortage of manpower, many IT firms in the country had opted to scale down operations or hire foreign staff.
“Some firms simply move their operations abroad. It is a difficult situation especially with the industry’s high expectations,” added Tan.
He elaborated that the IT field is constantly changing and what students learn today may not be relevant by the time they graduate.
“Institutions of higher learning that offer IT courses must ensure their curriculum is up-to-date so that what they teach stays relevant,” Tan said.
He added that IT graduates and prospective IT students should not be disheartened and should continue to improve themselves in order to get jobs.
“IT jobs are some of the most financially rewarding jobs in the market,” said Tan but they cannot be solved overnight.
“But it can be alleviated if industry members co-operate with universities like what we are doing today with HELP to bridge the misalignment gap.
“By collaborating with the board, HELP will be able to keep its teaching staff and students up to speed with developments within the IT industry.
Also present at the launch was MDeC Head of Talent general manager Muhammad Imran Kunalan Abdullah.
“Between 2000 and 2500 IT companies have approached MDeC complaining that they can’t grow because there is not enough IT talent.
“This is why my department was established, to accommodate IT employers’ needs and demands in the workforce,” said Muhammad Imran Kunalan.
He explained that in order to come up with an intervention plan MDeC needed to identify the root causes of the problems first.
“We engaged a firm to help us conduct a study on the IT job market and we identified 10 skill clusters sought after by employers.
Interpersonal skills
“IT graduates are weakest in the interpersonal skills cluster. Hence having good people skills would put you ahead of someone with good technical skills,” he said.
He also noted that some students no longer find IT appealing which is contributing to the lack of manpower in the industry..
“IT enrolments in private higher education institutions (IPTS) dropped by 21.6%where there was only a 0.2% growth in public universities (IPTA).
“Many students are turning away from IT studies as a higher education option. In an MDeC IT bootcamp for 100 top students in secondary schools, only five wanted to pursue an IT course,” added Muhammad Imran Kunalan.
HELP University president Datuk Dr Paul Chan said that this is not the first advisory board to be established in the university.
“We have many other advisory boards for different departments like our accounting and business faculties.
“They keep us on track in our curriculum,” said Dr Chan who is also the board’s executive sponsor.
Other notable members of the board include MOL Global group CEO Ganesh Kumar Bangah,The Media Shoppe (TMS) co-founder Christopher Chan and Digi Regulatory Department head Steven Soon.
Ganesh who is the board’s other co-chairman, explained that the IT field has undergone major changes in just a few decades and should be more appealing than ever to students.
“Today IT is no longer just a support industry that helps the running of banks,hospitals, government agencies and other industries.
“IT can stand on its own now as a primary industry with commodities such as games to sell,” he said.
He cited that 30 to 40 % of Facebook usage is for games and that companies like Zynga, a social gaming provider, are billion dollar enterprises.
“I believe this board can inspire the HELP students to become technoprenuers and great IT professionals … I can assure you that it will be a RM200mil to RM300mil industry in the years to come,” he said.
He added that exposure to the latest IT technology and software was no longer a stumbling block as everything is readily available and accessible today.
“You no longer need to study in the United States to get a good IT education,” h said.
HELP University Department of Information Technology head Dr Sien Ven Yu said that measures were already in place to counter the lack of interpersonal skills among IT graduates.
“In our IT diploma programme, it is compulsory for students to take the subjects English One and Two to ensure they grasp the language.
Sometimes the IT firms themselves are the culprits in the manpower shortage, said Muhammad Imran Kunalan.
“These companies want talent, but they offer no in-house or outsourced talent development programmes. This must change, if we are to cater to the expected growth of the industry,” he said.
However,Chan who is also a Pikom councillor believed that there is a paradox in offering training to new talents.
“The more training we give them, the faster they get poached by foreign companies,with offers of better salaries.
“Salary is still the primary criteria for a candidate or talent when choosing a job, so we still end up at where we begin, no talents for the local industry,” he said.
To this, Muhammad Imran Kunalan replied that local IT firms need to learn a few new tricks.
“IT firms must learn how to retain talent. Salary is not the only carrot we can dangle to the new workforce.
“This new generation of professionals don’t stay in one company for long. But they are also more receptive to other incentives such as a fun working environment and flexi hours,” he said.
Source: The Star (Education section)