It was a 10-hour drive across Sabah from Kampung Pasir Putih in Tawau to Kota Kinabalu, but determined to join the Petronas BeDigital Bootcamp, M Fiqrie Aiddin Sharudin and his friends took turns at the steering wheel to make the journey.

The Civil Engineering student from Universiti Malaysia Sabah, together with friends M Izzat Maddimunri and Mohd Zulhilmi Martang were among the 100 students selected to participate in the third cohort of the digital upskilling programme last month.

“We heard about the programme from our seniors, and we registered as soon as we saw the notice. I was initially disheartened because I thought we were not accepted, but we immediately made plans to travel to Kota Kinabalu as soon as we found out we were,” said 23-year-old Fiqrie.

Describing the bootcamp experience as an eye-opener, Fiqrie was also among the lucky participants who managed to secure an employment offer from BeDigital Bootcamp partner, Tata Consultancy Services Malaysia Sdn Bhd (TCS).

For Izzat, the programme, which exposed participants to real-world scenarios and workplace expectations, was valuable as it helped enhance his soft skills such as communication and

handling interviews with better confidence, aside from improved digital knowledge.

“After the success of the earlier two cohorts, not only are we increasing the number of students for each cohort this year, but we are also bringing the programme to Sarawak, Terengganu and Kelantan,” said Petronas Senior Vice President of Project Delivery and Technology (PD&T), Datuk Bacho Pilong.

The two-week curated programme to strengthen digital literacy was first introduced in Kota Kinabalu last year with a total of 68 students from four higher learning institutions in Sabah, participating in two cohorts.

The participating higher learning institutions were Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Sabah, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), University College Sabah Foundation (UCSF) and North Borneo University College (NBUC).

From the two cohorts, a total of 34 students were offered employment by Petronas Group, Sabah Energy Corporation (SEC) and TCS.

This year’s event saw the involvement of additional corporate partners, including FPT Software Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Asian Supply Base Sdn Bhd, Sawit Kinabalu Sdn Bhd as well as Petronas Group’s Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering (MMHE) Holdings Bhd, KLCC Urus Harta Sdn Bhd, Petrosains Sdn Bhd, and Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd (Sabah Asset).

A total of 39 participants, also fondly known as Campers, received conditional job offers from some of these partners.

Interestingly, some of the former Campers from the first and second cohorts who received job offers and are currently working in Petronas, returned to the programme as trainers and facilitators.

Petronas Vice President, Group Technology and Commercialisation, PD&T, Aadrin Azly said, “It is gratifying to see former students successfully securing employment through the Bootcamp. I am especially proud of how much they believe in the vision and are paying it forward by guiding their juniors. We want this to be an ongoing trend so that digital literacy becomes more inclusive, and nobody gets left behind in building vital digital skills for employment,” said Aadrin.

The next BeDigital Bootcamps scheduled for August and September 2023 will involve students from Sarawak, Kelantan and Terengganu.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by BORNEO POST ONLINE

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