It was another successful virtual bootcamp, jointly organised for the third time by the Department of Soft Skills Competency (DSSC) and Department of Alumni Relations and Placement (DARP) of Kampar Campus titled “Future Ready Virtual Career Bootcamp 2021: Accelerating Your Career Success for Digital Transformation”, from 5 to 9 January 2021, via Microsoft Teams and Zoom platforms.

The virtual bootcamp, which attracted over 200 participation, aimed to prepare students for their career development. It also aimed to enable students to innovate and up-skill themselves, as well as to equip them with effective and essential career strategies for their future work. Various online activities were conducted, including trainings, workshops, dialogue sessions, and coffee chats. The activities were joint efforts of DSSC staff, industry players and UTAR alumni.

A total of four core intensive training programmes were conducted online. The first training was conducted by Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF) senior lecturer Ng Yen Hong and it focused on cultivating essential skills on Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. At the training, she spoke about the functions of each Microsoft programme and participants were given hands-on practical exercises to learn more about the functions and its application.

Training 2, titled “Data Visualisation on Excel Dashboard” were conducted by Faculty of Science (FSc) lecturer Looi Sing Yan. The training covered aspects on graphing decision, charting and formatting, excel logical function, data validation and interactive excel chart. “Charts are very useful and when used correctly at work or for projects, it actually provides many benefits. For instance, charting helps you organise and analyse information in well-structured formats, which makes it easier for you to interpret data and enables you to understand the information better without the need for text,” explained Looi.

Two trainers were present for the third training, which focused on “E-business in Digital Economy: First Step into Your E-business World”. The first part was conducted by Faculty of Information and Communication Technology (FICT) senior lecturer Ts Lim Jit Theam, where he spoke about embracing the digital economy. “So how do you embrace the digital economy and prepare yourself for the future workforce? We will first consider your skills; you will need to develop a higher level of technical skills (especially digital skills), social skill, creativity, flexibility and learning ability. Cross-functional professional skills and expertise will also become more desirable,” advised Lim.

He added, “The second nature is your mindset. You will need to make necessary shifts in your mindset and behaviours because the digital age will require you to adapt and seek common ground in diversity. You will also be required to actively participate in virtual, cross-team, cross-organisational, and even cross-platform collaboration. Lastly is your attitude. You will need to use diversified working patterns with different individuals, which gives way for more choices, but also maintaining the demand for self-reliance, self-governance, and initiative-taking.”

He also advised, “Now is the time for young people to take advantage of the inclusiveness of digital infrastructure and the momentum spurred on by a world undergoing digital transformation and engage in digital entrepreneurship.”

The second part of the third training was conducted by FICT lecturer Ts Soong Hoong Cheng. He shared with participants on advertising strategy and e-commerce. He further explained the concept of advertising and elucidated, “Advertising is thus, a mass communication tool, which is essentially in paid form by a firm or an individual and the ultimate purpose of which is to give information, develop attitudes and induce action, which are useful to the advertiser. If you look an advertisement, you will notice that it consists of these elements, namely Slogan, Headline, Sub-headline, Picture, Product/Service/Brand, Logo, Unique Sales Promotion (USP), and Address.”

Later he taught participants the various tools used in digital advertising, and ways to create advertisements using Facebook. He also taught participants the benefits of e-commerce and ways to set up an e-commerce business using Shopee.

The fourth training focused on “Basic Photography & Videography Skills for E-commerce: Showcasing Your Product Effectively”. In this training, invited speakers, namely Founder of SiSen Studio Tan Jian Le and Founder of O.C. Capture Studio Ooi Chee Choon, shared their experiences, skills and provided advice on the fundamentals of video shooting and video cutting; software and social media tools for basic videography and the fundamentals of object and fashion photography. The speakers also taught participants photography and videography skills through their short tutorials and practical sessions.

In addition to learning from the industry players, the value-added workshops aimed to further hone the participants’ soft skills, including leadership, communication, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, teamwork, complex problem-solving, as well as entrepreneurial skills and knowledge on moral and professional ethics. The coffee chats with invited speakers Aizuddin Arshad, Amelyn Yee, and Captain Arivananthan, provided participants a relaxed dialogue session on benefits of critical thinking for a progressive career; ways to progress into the workforce after graduation; and application of effective problem-solving skills at the workplace.