With the rapid advancement and evolution of technology, digital skills are becoming increasingly important.
In line with the Sarawak’s Digital Economy initiative, the Digital Academy in the Centre of Technical Excellence Sarawak (CENTEX) was established to provide training programs in the digital field.
In 2018, CENTEX secured a deal with Huawei in skills training in digital fields and among the training programs includes wireless hardware installation specialist, microwave hardware installation specialist, data centre and network equipment installation specialist, data centre and network equipment hardware installation specialist as well as telecom energy and data center energy hardware installation specialist.
During a recent interview with RAKAN Sarawak, the Chief Executive Officer of CENTEX, Haji Syeed Mohd Hussien noted that CENTEX is the only training institution to have strike a partnership with Huawei to provide digital training programs for ICT hardware installation in the region.
“So, this makes Sarawak quite exclusive in the eye of the Southeast Asia map for ICT hardware installation training,” he said adding that before the pandemic, CENTEX did receive trainees from Brunei TELEKOM for training.
With various training programs that is in par with the development of Sarawak digital economy, a total of RM20 million was invested to establish CENTEX Digital Academy.
The training programs for digital fields is important to provide training for Sarawakian youths to fulfil the need of digital economy development in the State.
For instance, students trained in the digital field can work and be involved the installation of Internet connectivity throughout the State after graduation as connectivity is vital for the development of digital economy.
As of now, Haji Syeed noted that CENTEX has trained about 200 students in the digital filed and they are ready to undertake jobs in that field.
“The State government is planning to build more communication towers in Sarawak and we need people who has the skills to do it. So, that is the beauty of having our own people, they can fit into the industry,”
“Among the jobs that they can do includes building towers and installing fibre optics,” he said noting on the importance of having the expertise and knowledge in the new technology field especially digital that is parallel with Industry 4.0 revolution.
Aside from that, as the academy also have facilities for various new field (such as Artificial Virtual reality (AVR)), Haji Syeed also noted that such knowledge and skills can also be used in other sectors including the field of medical, arts and history, agriculture and e-commerce.
“For instance, AVR can also be used for simulation training in the medical field as students can use it to practice virtual operation,” he added. Aside from that, he also noted that the skills also allowed the students to work outside of Sarawak, relevant to their expertise and skills especially in the digital field.
