Ministry gives free ICT courses to more than 80,000 Sabahans

Nothing is impossible. And 50 new Mircrosoft Certified System Engineers (MCSE) in Sabah have proven it by passing seven gruelling examinations in a record six months as part-time students. They are among more than 80,000 Sabahans who have received free professional training in information communications technology (ICT) from Sabah’s ministry of resource development and information technology. The new MCSEs are the first batch sponsored by the Sabah government.

Usually, it would take six months of full time study for information technology professionals who have about two years of work experience to complete the course. The ICT training has cost the Sabah government millions of ringgit to produce highly skilled IT professionals for the job market.

“This is certainly a good thing,” said minister Dr Yee Moh Chai who presented certificates to the MCSEs on December 21. “Demand for such training is high. People want to be ICT savvy because the whole world is a global village.”

Dr Yee said an ICT blueprint was expected in March. It would map out employment needs and strategies to face global challenges over the next 15 years in accordance with national and state policies.

He said MCSEs were necessary for ICT development. The Sabah development corridor (SDC) which will turn Sabah into a gateway for trade, investment and tourism will require many ICT experts.

Dr Yee said it was his government’s policy to increase ICT awareness in Sabahans to narrow the digital divide.

“We are very excited about the MCSE training programme. There will be more of this training in the future,” he said. “The industry is expanding as the state is advancing in developing a knowledge-based economy.”

Dr Yee’s ministry has also trained more than 4,000 Sabahans in various language courses, particularly in English.

Two of Insight Sabah’s senior IT staff are among the new MCSEs. They are Raymond Lee Tet Khong, 29, system and database manager, and Sharry Ku Yeng Mei, database programmer.

Mr Lee said the course had made him more adept in managing IT infrastructure. “This would not be the end of our training,” he said. “We have to upgrade ourselves as we move to Windows 7.”

The MCSE course is very demanding as it requires students to pass four exams on networking system, one on client operating system, one on design and another on an elective subject. Mr Lee said he had to sacrifice family life for six months as he had to attend 12 hours of lessons during weekends.

Paul Voo, the chief executive officer of Advanced Business System Consultant Sendirian Berhad which conducted the course, said the 50 students completed the course in 312 hours of lessons over the weekends or at evening classes during weekdays. The course fee is 10,000 ringgit ($2,900) per student, inclusive of exam fees (slightly more than 2,000 ringgit), study materials and food, paid by the ministry of resource development and information technology.

He said all of his students were senior IT professionals, many of them headed IT departments. Twenty-five of them were from the State Computer Services Department.

Sunariah Abdullah, 32, said she was proud to qualify as an MCSE. “With this certification, I can work as a consultant, giving technical advice on a host of system issues, particularly on networking,” she said.

Sunariah, who graduated from the Universiti Malaysia Sabah in computer science, is seconded to the Sabah state library from the computer services department. “I can apply all that I’ve learnt to my work with the library,” She said.

Mr Voo’s company has been training IT professionals for the last 20 years. The federal government sponsored 70 students for the MCSE course in 2005 and 2006 through the human resource development ministry before the sponsorship was given to the state government. – Insight Sabah

– With reporting by Elizabeth Majaham