There are a few reasons why HT Consulting’s (HTC) 3 months Job Readiness Programme is unlike others that are offered by training institutions, talent development agencies, and micro-credential courses found in universities today.
For one, it is unique because it incorporates industry-relevant perspectives into its curriculum by presenting real-world problems to our trainees through practical assignments and assessments. The programme teaches computer science fundamentals while moulding our trainees’ analytical thinking process, in order to develop a solution for the given industry problem.
It is a programme targeted at graduates from other disciplines of Engineering, Science, or Math – who are contemplating a career change into software development.
A survey conducted by a global software education platform founded by professors from MIT and Harvard found that the key drivers that motivate talent to explore a change in career are a desire for a salary increase (39%), followed by an interest in a different field (21%) and the quest for upward mobility (20%).
Mapping these findings to the reality of the rapidly developing demands of our digitalized economy today, it is not surprising that the field of technology is a natural reskilling choice of young talent
seeking new job opportunities to own a successful career path. This is because the current workplace seeks to hire talent trained in in-demand skill sets such as software development to aid in process automation, artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, and big data; just to name a few.
The major challenge faced by talent who are exploring a career change to the field of technology, however, is the lack of hiring opportunities offered by employers. Many organisations are not prepared to invest resources in training career changers.
Understandably, the competitive nature of our business environments forces organisations to expect talent to ‘hit the road running as soon as they are on-boarded. Any time spent in between would be opportunity costs for the company.
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The motivation behind the HTC Job Readiness Programme offering
As a company, HTC’s mission is built on 4 strategic pillars – one of which is to contribute to the growth of a sustainable talent bank in Malaysia. As such, HTC is not new to the area of providing fully sponsored training programmes to the public since our inception in 1989.
Another signature of our fully sponsored programmes has also been to provide a stipend to our trainees to help them cover the costs of transportation, parking, and toll throughout the duration.
The Job Readiness Programme (JRP) was developed in the fourth quarter of 2021 in response to our observation made when interviewing candidates who applied to our Software Developer job recruitment advertisement.
“We met quite a number of outstanding and experienced candidates but because they were not computer science or software engineering graduates, they were unable to pass our technical assessments that required knowledge in areas such as data structures and algorithms,” Vanessa Tan, Deputy CEO and the chief ideator of the JRP shared.
“These candidates had successfully completed their undergraduate degree, had proven analytical skills, and a passion to explore software development as a career, which are valuable traits of good talent. So we asked ourselves how we could go the extra mile to support them to pursue their dream.”
In April 2022, we welcomed our first JRP cohort to our office in Kelana Jaya, at an opportune time when the economy experienced more relaxed SOPs for Covid. Our trainees were graduates from both local and oversea universities, who had majored in various fields of engineering including Mechanical, Electrical, and Chemical.
Our trainees very soon became our colleagues – Each day, after spending the morning half in the ‘classroom’ with Jimmy Ng, HTC’s Talent Trainer and Coach, they are encouraged to complete their assignments in the afternoons to solidify their classroom knowledge through applied learning.
HT Consulting believes in creating safe spaces for learning
In our effort to create a sense of belonging for our trainees, they were each assigned a personal workspace amongst our other members of the development team.
To foster a safe space for learning – including being able to ask questions and make mistakes; we had also handpicked 3 colleagues from our development team to play the role of ‘teaching assistants’ throughout the 3 months programme.
“The teaching assistants were really accommodating! They would be always ready to help us by allocating some time to guide us although they have their daily tasks to commit to. In my opinion, it was a good initiative by HTC to assign the trainees with teaching assistants,” elucidated Aizat, one of our JRP trainees.
“I found it very beneficial to have my own workstation. Working alongside HTC’s employees helped to foster communication between the trainees and employees. Apart from that, it created a safe platform to ask questions which helped me to enhance my knowledge of the topics on hand,” explained Jonathan.
There was a great sense of achievement for both HTC and our trainees when we wrapped up the JRP in July 2022. In our debriefing session, we got to hear about their personal experiences of our 3-month programme – including how they plan to continue their learning journey, which will successfully lead them to a role in software development. And as for one other trainee, he had accepted an HTC job offer to join our development team.
Stay tuned for our next intake in April 2023!
HTC plans to run our next Job Readiness Program for Career Changers in April 2023. Up-to-date announcements will be made on our official FB and LinkedIn channels. In the meantime, watch our feature video to learn about our trainee’s first-hand experience:
HT Consulting is a provider of software services using enabling technologies that help our customers in the Banking sector to make major strides in their performance and capabilities. We are committed to supporting our customer’s growth by providing solutions that bring together innovation, technology, and practicality so that they can stay focused on their core business and achieve milestone breakthroughs.
Sources:
- https://www.apollotechnical.com/career-change-statistics/
- https://blog.edx.org/edx-survey-finds-1-3-americans-ages-25-44-completely-changed-fields-since-starting-first-job-post-college
- https://scrimba.com/articles/too-old-to-be-web-developer/
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