By AvantiKumar on April 1, 2016, published in MIS-Asia
Data management and analytics platform provider Cloudera has officially announced that Malaysia’s Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) University has joined Cloudera’s Academic Partnership, which will help equip students with big data analytics skillsets
The collaboration, which was recently mentioned by Cloudera’s senior director of marketing for APAC Daniel Ng as part of plans to support Malaysia’s ambitions to become a big data analytics (BDA) hub, will mean that UTAR students can access the latest Apache Hadoop curriculum and gain employment opportunities through Cloudera partnerships.
Previously, Ng said that industries were facing a global talent crunch for data professionals. In Malaysia, the number of IT graduates produced each year, which numbers about 30,000, is not enough to cater to the growth of the industry, according to the country’s National ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Association (PIKOM). The Association also believed that the current workforce requires upgrading and upscaling.
“A rapidly evolving data landscape is giving rise to a strong demand for skilled professionals that are able to deploy and manage big data initiatives on the Apache Hadoop data platform. CAP is one of the ways that Cloudera is leading the way in putting more data-skilled talents into the workforce,” he said.
“The CAP program not only equips students with valuable skillsets, but it also benefits public and private sector organisations as they can harness these data talents to drive innovation and gain competitive advantage. We are currently also working with partners across industries to form an ecosystem to groom more data professionals. More will be announced regarding this initiative in the coming weeks,” he said.
Regional BDA hub
Ir Dr. Karl Ng, director of Innovation Capital at national ICT agency Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) said: “Data professionals are very much in demand right now and they are in short supply. Malaysia is poised to become one of South East Asia’s leading BDA hubs and with Cloudera’s CAP program, we hope to close the talent gap as well as spread the awareness on the need for more data professionals including data scientists.”
“MDeC is set to embark on a major regional big data platform where the agency brings together innovative talent development models and showcases the latest Big Data Analytics (BDA) technologies,” said Dr Ng. “MDeC believes that talents from the CAP programme will be able to fill the demand for skilful data scientists when the platform is launched.”
UTAR is the first university in Malaysia to join the CAP program, which already counts over 100 academic institutions across the globe as members.
Ir Prof Academician Dato’ Dr Chuah Hean Teik, President/CEO, UTAR, said: “As a global university of educational excellence, we are committed to promote the use of ICT and IT-intensive learning through innovative courses and learning support systems. Cloudera’s CAP program allows us to put together a strong curriculum that encourages the intellectual and personal development of students. The program also allows our students to gain valuable skills that are in demand across sectors in the industry.”
Established in 2002 with just 411 students, today, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) offers more than 110 programmes in fields including Accounting, Business and Economics, Actuarial Science, Mathematics and Process Management, Agriculture and Food Science, Arts, Social Sciences and Education, Creative Industries and Design, Engineering and Built Environment, Information and Communication Technology, Life and Physical Sciences, and Medicine and Health Sciences to over 25,000 students in its nine faculties, three institutes and three centres located at the Sungai Long Campus and Kampar Campus. UTAR has more than 43,000 alumni.