MSC Malaysia Capability Development Week will showcase the ideal certifications to benefit local ICT professionals
KUALA LUMPUR, January 15, 2008
– MSC Malaysia, the national ICT initiative, today kicked off its
Capability Development Week with the theme “Get IT Certified”.
MSC Malaysia Capability Development Week is part of MSC Malaysia’s continuing efforts to support ICT professionals in Malaysia to face the challenges of keeping abreast of the latest technologies and industry best practices and consists of a series of workshops from Monday, January 14th 2008, until Friday, January 18th, 2008. The highlight of the week is a 2-day series of seminars and showcase held at Nikko Hotel and workshops at MSC Malaysia Innovation Centre, Cyberjaya.
Certifications are vital to ensure the professionals are able to chart productive career paths for themselves and to assure employers that they are able to deliver world-class levels of service and productivity. The seminars and workshops will showcase the certifications most appropriate and beneficial to Malaysian ICT professionals.
Delivering the opening address at the start MSC Malaysia Capability Development Week 2008, Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Dato’ Kong Cho Ha said, “It is very important to have highly trained and competent personnel to drive the delivery of quality services and products by Malaysian ICT organizations so that these companies can compete in global markets.”
“The launching of the ‘Get IT Certified’ initiative today under the MSC Malaysia Capability Development Programme (CDP) is at just the right time for MSC Malaysia to further concentrate in improving the skills of ICT professionals in Malaysia,” said Dato’ Kong, adding, “Certifications are a way to prove that a professional had the knowledge and skills to deliver world-class levels of service and also to uphold professional standards within the industry.” He went on to state that MOSTI will be giving its full support to MSC Malaysia’s CDP.
In his speech MDeC Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Halim Ali, said, “As off end of last year, 600 organisations have benefited from these programmes in 2007 alone and more than 100 have been certified since the programme was launched in 2004 and the numbers continues to grow.”
“The MSC Malaysia CDP not only assists companies in achieving these certifications more cost-effectively (nearly 50% cost reduction) but it also enables additional benefits from monthly dialogues, seminars, clinics and workshops developed to gear the MSC Malaysia status companies to achieve certifications that would undeniably ensure business continuity,” said Tan Sri Halim.
Speaking at a Press conference following the launch, MDeC Vice President and Head of Capacity Development Division Ng Wan Peng said, “Certification can be used a measure to prove that an individual or an organisation has acquired the necessary skills and body of knowledge based on a set of standards. Global competitiveness rankings such as AT Kearney SSO competitiveness index uses the number of certified individuals or organisations as a country’s benchmark.”
She added that the “Get IT Certified” initiative was aimed at encouraging ICT professionals and MSC Malaysia status organisations to look into their human capital development as the core for the enhancement of their organisation’s capability and competitiveness. Under the initiative MDeC will also be looking at working with potential industry partners to support their campaign objectives.
Earning industry certification is one of the most important steps in career development for ICT professionals. The benefits of certification are manifold; it improves skills and knowledge, demonstrates an individual's commitment to the profession, proves ability and reflects achievement. Certification prepares the professional for greater on-the-job responsibilities and opens opportunities for career advancement.
Organizations, too, benefit by supporting their employees' pursuit of professional certifications. In addition to improvements in organizational productivity and efficiency many companies have found that certified employees are better motivated at work and keen to contribute in greater measure towards the company's success. Organizations could also pursue organisation level certifications to sustain its improvement initiatives.
In addition to seminars and workshops, there will also be a showcase of leading ICT certification held at Nikko Hotel. Participating in the showcase will be SGS Malaysia, Macrofirm Technology, Quint Wellington Redwood, Cisco, SAP, SUN, IBM, Microsoft, Project Management Institute IT & Telecomms Special Interest Group (IT&T), QAI International, Help Desk Institute (HDI) International and MSC Malaysia Capability Development Programmes.
There are about 2000 MSC Malaysia status companies working in areas such as creative multimedia, outsourcing, software development, hardware design, Internet-based businesses, support services, and others. Together these companies generated revenues of about RM14 billion as at the end of 2006, with exports totaling RM4.03 billion, and are the source of 62,306 high-value jobs in Malaysia.