Sunway, Digital Penang to build talent development ecosystem

• To strengthen Penang’s digital talent pool, software tech talent
• Penang's manufacturing, engineering ideal to create digital talent hub

The Sunway Education Group (SEG) and state government agency Digital Penang signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore opportunities in building the digital ecosystem to strengthen Penang’s vibrant digital talent pool. 

In a joint statement, both parties said this is in line with the national agenda and the state’s Penang2030 vision. 

They said the MOU will see collaboration opportunities and synergies to groom software tech talents to become world-class developers and tech entrepreneurs.

This is in addition to creating job opportunities to meet the growing industry demands, they added.

Under SEG’s extension of 42 Kuala Lumpur (42 KL) and Sunway iLabs, both parties will explore opportunities to curate tech workshops, talks, build a peer-to-peer coding learning environment, and jobs matching to create a sustainable digital ecosystem in Penang, the companies said.

42KL is a non-profit initiative through a partnership between Sunway Education Group and MDEC, together with the support from the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation and Sunway iLabs. 

Laying the foundation for Malaysia to become the leading digital economy in Asean, the ground-breaking French-founded coding school’s unique and disruptive educational model offers zero tuition fees, zero teachers and zero traditional classrooms, SEG said.

This enables students to learn and grow in a peer-to-peer environment on a 100% merit-based through practical, project-based learning, it said.

Matt van Leeuwen (pic), chief innovation officer for Sunway Group and director of Sunway iLabs believes that Penang's strong foundation in the manufacturing and engineering sector makes it an ideal location for it to be the digital talent hub of the North.

“Penang’s vibrant ecosystem and its digital aspirations is a match-made in heaven to cultivate hardware expertise and software skills.

“We’ve set out a target to train and develop 10,000 students over the next ten years through programmes like 42KL that will be present in more states across the country and the potential 42 Penang will play a key role for this vision,” said van Leeuwen.

Tony Yeoh, chief executive officer of Digital Penang said to meet the ever growing and evolving demands for tech talents in the state, Digital Penang is committed to exploring initiatives and programmes to develop local talent with industry and global validated skills to accelerate digital tech careers. 

“As ecosystem partners to build capabilities of tech talents and entrepreneurs, the state welcomes this partnership and looks forward to investing in talent development programmes that will benefit industry demands and the ecosystem in Penang.

“We place high priority in developing talents in the software tech industry, enhance employability for software talents especially the B40 category to provide high-income and high-skill jobs to further attract investments and talent into Penang’s digital ecosystem,” said Yeoh.