BANGI: German-Malaysian Institute (GMI) established in 1991 has realised its objective of producing highly skilled tailor-made manpower for the job market, a survey shows. Its Managing Director Yusoff Md Sahir said the study revealed that 93 per cent of the graduates were working in the engineering or technical sector while the rest were serving as lecturers or trainers. The constant feedback from the industry through various assessment activities allowed GMI to continue making its curriculum more dynamic and industry-driven, he told Bernama in an interview after GMI's 20th convocation ceremony recently.
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From a total of 585 graduates who received their diplomas, 371 are from the Industrial Electronics Department and 214 from the Production Technology Department. GMI's current enrolment stands at 4,484 students. "The participation of the industry in our 20th convocation is a testimony of their involvement in technical training and their concern on the highly skilled human capital development," he said.
The Career and Education Fair at the institute on Oct 30 also saw the participation of 30 companies with more than 100 job openings for its final year students, said Yusoff. To achieve its objectives, he said, GMI had been maintaining student-teacher ratio of 24:1 to ensure that the hands-on approach is implemented comprehensively in the student-centred learning environment.
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"The enhancement of our training approach using problem-project-production based learning has further strengthened the graduate's character building, especially among the Gen Y," he stressed. Yusoff said GMI graduates were well-received by the industry as they had attained the job competency in the technical, social and learning aspects, which is crucial for them to be competitive in the job market and to be a lifelong learner in the rapid changing technology.
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Asked on plans to increase the diploma level courses, he said GMI graduates were able to further their studies at Bachelor level with the memorandum of articulation with universities from Germany, United Kingdom and Australia. He said GMI also offered Bachelor programmes with University Malaysia Pahang in Engineering Technology (Manufacturing) and a two-and-a-half year Bachelor of Engineering Technology (Electrical) programme. On the German A-Level Preparatory Programme (GAPP), he said it was gaining popularity since many students chose engineering as their career pathway and Germany as the main choice due to quality education. Under the Memorandum of Understanding established since 2002 with the State of Bavaria, Hessen, North Rhein Westphalia and Baden-Wurttemberg, GAPP students could be placed in over 50 universities of applied sciences in Germany. As of 2014, a total of 566 students have enrolled in the University of Applied Sciences in Germany. Nur Aina Syahirah Aziz, 21, a Diploma in Production Technology student, specialising in mould technology said she found GMI conducive for pursuing her career. "Here we learnt the basic machine technique, and the subsequent semesters were challenging since I was not from a technical school."However, luckily I managed to adapt to the new environment. Basically GMI's learning process is more focused on practical learning," said Nur Aina Shahirah, who would further her studies under Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara)'s funding in Mechanical Engineering in Australia in February 2015. Muhammad Fadzlee Jasmi, 21, a Diploma in Industrial Electronics student, majoring in process instrumentation and control said his chose GMI due to his passion to work in the oil and gas industry. "This course requires critical thinking skills, but I managed to go through the course with the help of lecturers, self-revision and group studies with senior students," said Fadzlee, who would pursue his studies at a local university. Mohd Umair Mohamed Noor Azam, 21, a Diploma in Industrial Electronics student, specialising in process instrumentation and control said engineering was not his first choice although both his parents were engineering lecturers. However, he later registered to apply for GMI during a Mara education exhibition after receiving encouraging feedback from various parties. After three years in GMI, Mohd Umair felt that he made the right decision as the institute provided students with hands-on experience and foreign technology from Germany, the United States and Japan. He has been selected to pursue his studies under Mara's Excellent Student's Diploma (DPC) awarded to Best Students.
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GMI is a joint venture between the governments of Malaysia and Germany, started operations in 1992 and was launched by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Established under the auspices of Mara and the Malaysian German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MGCC), GMI aims to help the industry to produce a highly skilled workforce to seek and combine the theoretical knowledge, through the practical technical training approaches based on the German education model. – Bernama