On March 16th, 2023, ICDL Asia officially launched Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) as the newest Accredited Test Centre in a ceremony held at Galeri Seni Tuanku Nur Zahirah (GESTURZ) at UiTM Shah Alam campus.
The event was attended by distinguished individuals, including Mr. Niall Collins TD, the Honorable Irish Minister of State for Skills and Further Education, Her Excellency Hilary Reilly, the Ambassador of Ireland to Malaysia, Mr. Kevin Ryan, Enterprise Ireland Director for ASEAN, Mr. Md Ghani Ibrahim, NAMA Foundation Head of Partnership, Prof Ts Dr Nor Hayati Saad, UiTM Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Strategy), Prof Dr Firdaus Abdullah, UiTM Dean, Faculty of Business and Management, and Mr. Nigel Ngiam, ICDL Asia Market Development Manager (Malaysia).
At the ceremony, UiTM’s ICDL Accredited Test Centre sign was unveiled by Mr. Niall Collins TD and Prof Ts Dr Nor Hayati Saad, with Mr. Md Ghani Ibrahim and Mr. Nigel Ngiam in attendance as witnesses.
Following UiTM’s accreditation in November 2022, the Faculty of Business and Management (FBM) at UiTM’s Puncak Alam campus successfully completed a self-funded ICDL pilot project involving 51 students in February. The team responsible for implementing ICDL has also plans for the sustainable growth of the programme. With the ICDL Application Essentials module already mapped to the curriculum for one of their courses, which will see approximately 1000 students in their March 2023 intake undergo ICDL certification.
In the medium-term, FBM academicians across all UiTM campuses nationwide are expected to undergo ICDL certification this year. The programme’s success in these areas is expected to spur the uptake of ICDL across other faculties in UiTM.
In the presence of Prof. Ts Dr. Nor Hayati Saad, Mr. Nigel Ngiam presented certificates to the students, marking the successful culmination of UiTM ICDL pilot project.
To further nurture the collaboration with UiTM, Mr. Nigel Ngiam also announced that ICDL Asia will be sponsoring UiTM with 100 units of ICDL Compass for the upcoming semester. This assessment tool allows learners to benchmark their digital skills and receive feedback on areas of improvement. It covers Office Applications (such as Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations), Cybersecurity and Online Collaboration. ICDL Compass has already been used by several organisations to assess digital competency among member staff, such as KWSP (The Employees’ Provident Fund) and etc.
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
UiTM is the largest public university in Malaysia, serving current students with a population of approximately 188,000 across its 34 campuses in 13 states. The university offers over 500 academic programmes, ranging from Foundation/Diploma courses to PhD-level studies. With the mission to increase access to higher education for students from B40 economic group, the vast majority of UiTM students come from financially underprivileged backgrounds, with their degree programme fees per semester averaging just RM 400 (USD 90).
UiTM was founded in 1956 as the Rural & Industrial Development Authority Training Centre, to improve the economy of rural communities in Malaysia. Nine years later, it was upgraded to college status under the Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) – the Council of Trust for the Indigenous People (bumiputeras). This marked the beginning of home-grown programmes, with the first of many international partnerships through recognition by Ealing Technical College of London (now known as the University of West London).
In 1967, MARA College was renamed as MARA Institute of Technology in response to a shortage of trained workforce at the professional and semi-professional levels, which was identified through a survey conducted by the government in collaboration with the United Nations. In 1999, MARA Institute of Technology was upgraded to UiTM with the mission to lead the development of bumiputeras through state-of-the-art curricula and impactful research in science, technology, humanities, and entrepreneurship.
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