By Alang Bendahara
EDUCATION and digitalisation have always been at the top of the Selangor government’s agenda. So it came as no surprise when, during the 2022 Selangor Budget, Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari announced the setting up of the Selangor Digital School (SDS).
Selangor Journal reached out to Selangor Information Technology and Digital Economy Corporation (Sidec) chief executive officer Yong Kai Ping on the SDS, which aims to be a digital learning platform that caters specifically to professional workers and graduates.
It is the state government’s hope that this select group of people acquire enough technological skills to fill the gaps in the digital job market.
“The idea came when we saw that the three pillars of the digital economy — e-commerce, fulfilment and fintech — had thrived during the Covid-19 pandemic due to lockdowns and isolation directives.
“As a result, the global tech talent shortage issue has become much more acute. In Selangor, it is estimated that only one out of three tech-related jobs are filled,” said Yong.
His outlook echoed the findings of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation’s Digital Talent Survey 2021, which revealed that 48 per cent of companies in the country adopted digital tech platforms for day-to-day operations last year compared to just 19 per cent in 2020, and 85 per cent had recognised the need to reskill their employees.
The report said the focus has shifted from digital productivity and remote working skills to technical skills such as data analytics, cybersecurity, cloud computing, digital marketing and software development. Yong said to overcome the lack of local digital talents, the state government through Sidec has invested in venture capital fund The Hive Southeast Asia to partner with Penjana Kapital Nasional to launch SDS.
“SDS will be collaborating with tech companies to recruit tech talents. Its students will have opportunities to be given job placements or internship opportunities with famous tech companies,” he said.
Course structure
As SDS aims to facilitate professional workers and graduates, Yong said the courses will be offered fully online.
He said SDS has referenced from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) which offer courses for adults, and parttime and online learners, as well as the Udemy model, an online learning and teaching marketplace that offers digital courses on demand.
“SDS will offer three types of courses — short courses or micro-credential courses, diploma programmes and degree programmes. Micro-credential courses are for individuals who are interested to take academic courses in examination mode without registering for a degree programme.
“While for the diploma and degree programmes, SDS will be collaborating with state-owned Universiti Selangor (Unisel), which has an existing programme that has already obtained Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) accreditation.”
Yong said topics like marketing technology (MarTech), advertising technology (AdTech) and software engineering are likely to be part of the coursework.
“Digital marketing and online learning systems that include learning simulators will be the unique selling point of SDS,” he said.
The SDS management team will have a number of experienced industry trainers like digital marketing experts Dr Goay Chia Chia, Charles Gregory and Zevin Goay.
“Unlike conventional learning organisations, SDS will adopt an agile startup model where the management team will be led by an experienced education expert as the chief executive officer (CEO) and several other management team members,” he said.
A digital future
Yong said SDS will complement Selangor’s goal of becoming a livable Smart State in Asean by 2025 as one of the objectives of Smart Selangor is to create environments that encourage happier and healthier citizens, and to ensure that the citizens enjoy quality education that prepares them for the digital future.
“Therefore, SDS aspires to enhance the high-quality of education currently being offered in Selangor and increase the local digital talent pool available in the state. This will subsequently reduce the state’s reliance on imported digital talent,” he said.
SDS is expected to be operational in September with about 200 students registered as its first batch for the October 2022 session.
This article first appeared in the Selangor Journal monthly July edition, published on July 3, 2022.
