FasTrack Can Address Staff Pinching In E&E, Says TalentCorp

KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 (Bernama) -- The FasTrack programme can be one platform for electrical and electronic (E&E) players to collaborate in attracting more talents while address staff pinching concerns among industry players, says TalentCorp Malaysia (Talent Corporation Malaysia Bhd) Chief Executive Officer Johan Mahmood Merican. He said E&E players were not only competing with each other in attracting quality talents but also had to compete with other industries like the financial and oil and gas sectors, which were most likely to look for the same pool of talents. He said apart from FastTrack, there were many different programmes carried out by TalentCorp such as the outreach activity, returning experts programme and attracting expatriates to work in the country as part of short to long-term strategies to ensure enough supply of talents in the country. "So, we are building up on all different enablers so that at least, we just enhance the supply that's available for the sector. At the end of the day, we want to reach a stage where if anyone needs to fill up a critical position, we want to see that over time, we want to reduce that time to fill," he told reporters at a media roundtable here Saturday. Johan said TalentCorp wanted to ensure that through different sources of supply, these companies can continue to do their business, grow and be able to secure talent easily. The FasTrack, a 12-month apprenticeship programme targeted at engineering graduates, has entered its second phase with 120 apprentices starting their training this month. FasTrack, which is run by the Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC), will see these apprentices undergo training later with seven host companies -- Agilent, Altera, Clarion, Intel, Infineon, Motorola Solutions and SilTerra. Meanwhile, Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science & Technology Centre (Crest) Chief Executive Officer Jaffri Ibrahim said the role of Crest was to develop an ecosystem, whereby it can develop various disciplines that has appreciation value for the E&E sector. He said Crest, which was a collaboration among E&E players, government agencies and academia, would focus on identifying crucial areas for research and development and how different partners in Crest can help move up the value chain. Currently, there are nine founding members in Crest namely OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, Agilent Technologies, Avago Technologies, SilTerra, Motorola Solutions, Altera, Intel, National Instruments and AMD. -- BERNAMA