Educational field trip to AT&T Inc. Malaysia

UTAR students and staff

The Centre for Foundation Studies (CFS) of Sungai Long Campus organised an educational field trip to AT&T Inc. Malaysia at Cyberjaya on 10 August 2018. The organising committee was comprised of foundation lecturers Patricia Liang Chooi Ling, Cindy Yeoh Li-Cheng, Ngo Siau Woon, Ang Chin Ing, Nalini Panneer Selvan and Teen Soh Hong. This is the second time UTAR collaborating with AT&T Inc. Malaysia. The first programme covered talks and mentoring sessions for the Stream P foundation students.

This visit is a joint initiative between Lead HR Country Management for AT&T Inc. Malaysia Sueki Yap, Patricia Liang and Cindy Yeoh.  It saw the participation of 20 students from Stream Y foundation, who will be pursuing their degree either in Information Technology or Finance. The trip aimed to expose the students to the corporate and business environments of the real world as well as to provide them with some practical advice and learning guidelines.

Sueki Yap giving a short introduction about the company

Michael Teo (right) delivering his talk

The half-day programme featured a series of activities, including talks related to Industry 4.0, Cyber Security and Communication Skills, a mentoring programme and a short office tour. AT&T Inc Malaysia Senior Officer of Cybersecurity, Risk, Audit & Compliance Management Michael Teo gave a talk on “Industry 4.0 and Cyber Security” which covered the importance of the revolution in the current technology era and alerted all information technology users of the possible risk that might be encountered. He also illustrated how the technology evolution has impacted the overall of the financial service, commercial business and economic development.

Another talk on communication skills was presented by Baba Netto, an International HR Programme Lead who was based in West Midlands, United Kingdom. It was conducted via telepresence, with the attendance of HR Operation Specialist from AT&T India Shonet Saldanha and the Malaysia counterparts Sueki Yap as well as UTAR students and staff. During her talk, Baba Netto shared the different types of communication channels and explained how the effective communication skills were essential for career success.

The ongoing one-to-one mentoring session

Moreover, each student was assigned and paired up with a mentor. They were exposed to the work-life experience relating to the career in the field of Information Technology. They were brought to the working desks and were given the opportunity to personally enquire about career opportunities and work tasks related to Information Technology to their respective mentors. Meanwhile, the lecturers were given a short office tour during the mentoring session.

The office adopted an open concept design and was separated into two sections mainly between the Hot Desk for operations and Help Desk for customer service. The employees in the Hot Desk section have no fixed workspace to call it their own; they set up their work at any empty desk available. As for the Help Desk, the area had been staggered into a few tiers ranging from simple problems, handled by the lower tier section, to a more complicated task which would then be escalated to the higher tier.

During the networking session

At the generosity and courtesy of AT&T Cyberjaya, the staff prepared a cosy tea break, serving a variety of pastries and a free flow of coffee and tea, at the office social hub. The event ended with a networking session between AT&T employees, UTAR lecturers and students. It was then followed by a photography session. The students and lecturers expressed their gratitude to the company for organising such a beneficial and meaningful programme and they look forward to having a similar collaboration in the near future.