By Asmahanim Amir
Pictures by Abdul Raai Osman

BANGI, 24 January 2017 – Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) is the first university in Asia that offers the Global Business course, helmed by Global Business Services (GBS) Malaysia.

UKM Deputy Vice Chancellor of Industry and Community Partnership, Prof. Dato’ Dr. Imran Ho Abdullah said the course was created to equip future graduates from various faculties with the knowledge and skills required to increase their employability.

“This course serves as an introduction and exposure to the GBS industry in order to provide graduates the confidence to start their early career in the industry,” he said at the Roundtable Discussion on Finance and Accounting Global Business Services Series 1/3(2017), “Building Talent for Finance & Accounting GBS Industry” here, recently.

He said engaging students with working environment is crucially important to ensure students’ readiness in real work-life.

In line with the Malaysian Government’s effort to ensure sufficient talent pool for the GBS industry, UKM, TelentCorp, MDeC, GEMS Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Outsourcing Malaysia, PIKOM, Cheng and Co Chartered Accountant’s and Pro B Centre had exchanged MoU/MoA documents as a testimony of their strong commitment and support to the programme as well as to establish collaboration with the GBS industry.

“The programme also serves as a platform to foster closer working relationships between the industry and academia towards producing industry ready graduates,” said Prof Dato’ Dr Imran Ho.

He said the course is not only open to UKM students, but it has been extended to other universities such as Notthingham University, Multimedia University, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris and few others.

“They are very keen to participate and wanted to incorporate this course in their university,” he added.

Prof Dato’ Dr Imran Ho said few GBS firms have set up the GBS Training Lab in UKM to provide hands-on learning experiences to students.

“The uniqueness of the GBS Training Lab at UKM provides essential resources for GBS firms, academicians and students to learn and share knowledge on all aspects of GBS activities.

“Our aim is to support the Global Business Services research Network (GBSRN) as a leading GBS research and training centre in Malaysia, Asia and beyond.

“Such impact, will be achieved through the network that we develop with industry leaders, policy maker and the media,” he explained.