COMMENT | Supporting interns with minimum allowance

COMMENT | I read with great interest Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s concern regarding students undertaking internships with companies and his appeal to industries to consider offering a minimum allowance for student interns in particular as part of their transportation and meal allowance.

He subsequently announced that interns with GLC will receive a minimum allowance of RM800.

Many, especially students, read this piece of good news with great relief. This is the testimony of the prime minister and the government recognising its citizens (in this case interns) problems and quickly offering solutions to lessen their burden and plight.

The late Othman Yeop Abdullah, recognised for his leadership in management whilst serving with the government, was identified and appointed to head and lead the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) - now Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) - as executive chairperson.

MDC was established specifically to serve as a one-stop centre for promotion and investments in ICT in line with the recommendations of the McKinsey Study for Malaysia to shift from its then focus on manufacturing to multimedia ICT aimed at enhancing the economic growth via the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC).

Whilst attending a science and technology meeting with the government of Hungary in Budapest in the early 2000s, representing the office of the science advisor, Prime Minister’s Department, I met Othman whom I had the honour and privilege to serve as part of the secretariat of industry sector when he was the chairperson.

As I had regularly sent a number of recommendations to him on international best practices for enhancing research and development in particular from a public-private partnership perspective, I was pleasantly surprised and indeed very honoured when whilst in Budapest, he had offered me to join the newly established MDC.

As I was mid way completing my report on enhancing venture capital (VC) financing for Malaysia’s first science advisor, Omar Abdul Rahman, I thanked Othman for his kind offer and requested some time for me to complete the VC report to submit to the Finance Ministry first before I reported for duty with the MDC.

Immediately after the office of the science advisor had submitted this report to the MOF, I reported for duty at the MDC and was given the portfolio in the Technology Policy and Research Department (TPR).

A key focus of TPR was reviewing and processing applications of the MSC status companies applying for the MSC R&D grant.

However, soon MDC recognised the importance of introducing an internship programme for university students to gain experience, especially in ICT via attachment with the MSC status companies.

Recognising that global companies have the best recruitment and training strategies and programmes, I discussed with my team that it would be key for us to visit these companies to learn more about their international best practices in particular regarding internship programmes. We visited several of these companies, including Shell and Motorola.

It was these companies that had shared with us the importance to include a section on areas of interest for students applying for industrial internships.

The companies highlighted that although the application form indicates which fields or areas the students are pursuing. However, there are occasions when the students are keen and interested in fields a little different from the area they are pursuing.

The global companies shared that they generally attach students to companies that are offering the areas of the student’s interest.

My team and I visited a number of MSC-status companies to gather their views and opinions about our new programme and especially we wanted very much to find out whether the companies were willing to offer a minimum allowance for the interns.

Our team too recognised that many students in particular those from families of lower income groups would find travelling to the companies, especially in Cyberjaya which is quite a distance from their homes, a “financial strain”.

From our survey, we found that less than 50 percent of companies initially did not agree nor supported our proposal for a minimum of RM500 for the interns citing that the companies were offering opportunities to train the students free of charge.

Thankfully, more than 50 percent were agreeable to our proposed sum of RM500 for the intern students and thus I quickly returned to MDC with this input and we included this as part of the new programme’s recommendation.

Additional support programmes

Whilst at the MSC status companies, we also sought the companies’ views on other matters and it was highlighted that many were of the view that although Malaysian students were generally good/great in technology.

However, their (not all but a number of) communication and presentation skills could be further improved.

Upon receiving these views, I quickly contacted the MDC’s partner on MSC students programmes, the then Science, Technology and the Environment Ministry and appealed to the ministry for an additional budget to introduce three modules - interview techniques, communication and presentation skills and report writing for the students prior to their attachment with the MSC status companies.

Our team were so relieved that the proposal was accepted by my colleague at the ministry who then suggested we prepare a proposal to present to the MOF to seek the additional budget for the above workshop.

We were invited to present to the MOF and were appreciative the proposal received full support from MOF and the additional required budget.

Thus with the additional budget we developed and introduced the MSC students attachment programme not only attaching students to MSC status companies but also offering these interns exposure to highly relevant topics required in the industry.

After planning, developing and introducing the MSC students attachment with the workshop above, our team were so happy to learn that selected Ivy League universities overseas were also offering a similar module as part of its attachment programme.

Proposals for government:

1. Continue to seek companies’ support to offer attachment to interns to gain industry experience with the support of a minimum allowance.

2. The government may wish to consider providing additional funding to organise and offer a workshop for students on the three greatly needed areas for students and companies; interview techniques, communications and presentation skills as well as report writing.

3. The government to review their present policy of requiring scholarship-funded students to immediately return to Malaysia upon their graduation and allow these students to work and gain industry experience overseas to be exposed to new technologies, learn new business models, management, financing, administration and marketing best practices to build their skills and competency which would be immensely beneficial for Malaysia when they return home.

4. If the government is concerned that students may not return home if given such opportunities, it should adopt selected countries’ strategies to welcome their national students to work, invest in start-ups and companies overseas and then appoint them as advisors to the Malaysian government in several capacities.

SHERIFFAH NOOR KHAMSEAH AL-IDID SYED AHMAD IDID is an Innovation and Nuclear Advocate at Alumna Imperial College, University of London, United Kingdom.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.