PENANG, 21 August 2016 - The Youth Industry Bootcamp (YIB) Programme which gathers young talents from the schools is a platform that instils in them the interest and to understand the essentials of science for future demands.

The Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Industry and Community Network), Professor Dr. Abdul Rahman Mohamed said that, the talents produced through the Malaysian education system are commendable, but a number of them are unable to fulfil the needs of the market (mismatched).

He explained that, the current statistics show a downward trend in the number of students who are interested and eligible to join in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

"We have the best infrastructure to attract investors into the country but what is worrying is the availability of suitable talents from among the locals.”

"Thus, we are implementing advanced initiatives to train those talents to become interested and understand the importance of STEM," he said.

He said this in his speech during the closing ceremony of YIB 2016 which was attended by 108 secondary-school science stream students from schools in the northern region here recently.

Also present at the ceremony were the CEO of Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science & Technology (CREST), Jaffri Ibrahim; Director of MARA Secondary Education Division (BPM), Abdul Hamid Ahmad; industry representatives and other attendees.

"We need more scientists, engineers and technology experts to ensure that the development in the country remains competitive.”

"The interest in STEM needs to be instilled during the early years of education and it should not just be solely assessment-oriented, in fact it should be training the talents to have thinking skills and to be able to have a wide understanding of many things," he said.

Text: Marziana Mohamed Alias / Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin