Minister for Youth and Sports officiates opening of Sector Focused Career Fair at Nilai University

“Nothing beats having students meet prospective employers face-to-face,” declared Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar, Minister of Youth and Sports, when officiating the opening of the Sector Focused Career Fair Nilai University 2014. “Bringing the right sort of companies into campuses is absolutely the right way to approach recruitment.” The career fair is co-organised by Nilai University’s Students’ Representative Council (SRC) and Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp). Held from 17-18 June at Nilai University’s President Hall, the event is designed to raise awareness among Malaysian students on exciting career opportunities as well as provide guidance on relevant areas such as CV writing and interview techniques.

The career fair focusses on the areas of hospitality, business, engineering and science and is supported by over 30 participating companies, including Celcom Axiata, Malaysian Airlines System Bhd, RHB Banking Group, KFC (Peninsular Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, and Mah Sing Group. 

“One of TalentCorp’s missions is to ensure local students have a clear and seamless pathway from education to employment,” said Khairy. “That is why this Sector Focused Career Fair is so important because one of the problems we keep hearing over the last few years is ‘graduate unemployment’. This completely perplexes Johan (Mahmood – TalentCorp CEO) and myself who have been involved in career fairs and there are a lot of jobs going round.” Citing the Economic Transformation Programme whereby the government will create in excess of 3 million jobs over the next five years, Khairy believes there is an asymmetry of information in the marketplace where students did not have enough information on the jobs available, career pathways and what was required to impress prospective employers. “Graduates need to build relevant soft skills to thrive in today’s working envrionment. This will help them gain employment that best fit their qualifications, and carve out a successful career of their choosing,” he advised.

Khairy commended the SRC on a fine job in organising the event, reminding the audience that the SRC had to pitch to TalentCorp why their university was the right venue to host the Sector Focused Career Fair. He also congratulated Nilai University on being innovative citing the Aircraft Maintenance Engineering programmes and the on campus facilities which include a hangar with two planes as an example of an education institution rising to meet the demands of the marketplace.  The Minister of Youth and Sports also made special mention of the fact that Nilai University had been named  (by the Ministry of Education) as a ‘Pusat Sukan Tumpuan Khas’ for the sport of fencing. He hoped that by having the necessary facilities will foster greater interest in this niche sport and it would also allow national atheletes to continue their vigourous training while continuing their studies (Nilai University currently has two national fencers pursuing higher qualifications).

“When we create those 3 million jobs under the Economic Transformation Programme, we need to make sure that these jobs are filled by the right people. That they are filled by Malaysians who have the right experience, the right skills and the right education,” Khairy concluded, urging students to make the most of the opportunities available at this Sector Focused Career Fair.   

Nilai University was established in 1997 and all of its programmes are validated by the Ministry of Education and accredited by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency. It strongly believes in facilitating student initiatives such as this Sector Focused Career Fair which allowed the SRC to gain valuable hands on experience in organising such an event. For more information on the programmes on offer, please go to www.nilai.edu.my or call 06-8502308 / 07-2262336 / 03-79603089.