As a member of the Penang STEM Education and Workforce Council, Penang Institute together with several private colleges and universities recently organised the Future Engineer Development Summit. The summit which took place from 18 to 19 September at Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC) aimed to spur intellectual discussion on critical issues related to industry skills demand and education delivery.
Key issues discussed were:
1. Increasing student enrollment in STEM fields;
2. Model of access to educational infrastructure;
3. Future-proofing curriculum; and
4. Sourcing human capital to support Industry 4.0.
Various stakeholders gathered to speak and partake in working group discussions. Among them were from the Ministry of Education, private and public institutes of higher learning (MMU, Curtin University, USM, UCSI, etc.), industry leaders (Intel, ViTrox, Globetronics, etc.), professional bodies (IET etc.), science centres and members of the state government.