During the stint, the IT diploma students were exposed to new and sophisticated software, some of which is the most advanced in the web-based publishing industry worldwide.
In addition, the Cosmopoint students were also offered jobs right away by the organisation where they were posted. The industrial training was held at P2i Online Sdn Bhd, a Multimedia Super Corridor or MSC-status company located at Cyberjaya, Selangor. P2i Online is the online division of P2i Newspapers LLC which also has offices in Pennsylvania and California, United States of America.
P2i’s core business is converting text and graphics from print to inter-active web products for its clientele, which also includes major American companies such as ShopLocal, SRDS, McClatchy, Grocery Shopping Networks and Newsday. P2i’s diverse network of customers, end-users, associates and affiliates span the publishing industry of North America and Europe.
Four of the students, Muhammad Luqmannulhakim Onn, Andirizal Rusli, Bustami Ibrahim Pardi and Mohd Aleffee Mat were tasked by P2i to handle works for corporations such as the Giant Eagle, Walmart and other retail chains, as well as several dailies.
During an interview, they students revealed that they had the opportunity to work on documents, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers and catalogues of some of the largest business-to-business, consumer, publishing and media companies in North America and Europe.
“Our work was very significant. We helped in converting contents intended for printed products into dynamic revenue generating websites. These in turn, enabled P2i’s customers such as newspapers, publishers and content aggregators to extend the reach of their contents to the general public,” said Luqmannulhakim.
While the four were well trained in the use of web development applications such as Adobe Dreamweaver, the tasks endeavoured to the four students at P2i was quite challenging.
“We got to learn how to use the latest software such as Hotspom4.” said Andirizal.
They said they were fortunate to be studying with Cosmopoint because of the institution’s close relationship with leading industry players, which made it easy for them to apply theories studied within the confine of a lecture hall to real-life office practice.
”We are really thrilled to be offered jobs at P2i right after our industrial training, but we had to decline the offers as we wanted to pursue our Bachelor’s Degree,” shared Bustami.
While practical training is an important phase of learning where a student puts his hard skills or technical skills to practice, the four Cosmopoint students said they found that soft skills are equally important in the workplace.
“We learned that we needed soft skills such as the ability to lead a team and motivate others as well as the ability to unite a team amidst cultural differences. These are character traits much sought after by employers everywhere,” Aleffee said.
At the end of their practical training, the four students were given Certificates of Completion by the MSC under its Knowledge Workers Development Initiatives. The Initiatives are aimed at providing training to knowledge workers in line with the progress of MSC Malaysia. In addition, it also aims to ensure that Malaysian workers are armed with internationally recognised certification to compete in the global business arena.
Luqmannulhakim, Andirizal, Bustami and Aleffee are now in the second semester of their Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in E-Business degree programme at the Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University College (KLMU), another institution of higher learning within the Cosmopoint education group.