MDeC and IMS Asia Sign MOU to Raise the Skills of Malaysian ICT Professionals

Make CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert) certification – the most respected, high-level certification, recognized worldwide as the “doctorate" of networking – affordable and locally available.
(From L to R) MDeC VP Ng Wan Peng shaking hands with IMS Asia MD Palaniappan Singaram after the MOU signing ceremony witnessed by MDeC CEO Dato’ Badlisham Ghazali and Cisco Systems Malaysia MD Kumaran Singaram.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 3, 2008 — Multimedia Development Corporation Sdn. Bhd. (MDeC) and IMS Asia Sdn. Bhd. signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) this afternoon to formalize their participation in the MSC Malaysia Capability Development Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CDP-CCIE) Lab Preparation Programme as part of the “MSC Malaysia Get IT Certified!” campaign, driven by MDeC. Under the MOU IMS Asia will be responsible for managing the entire CDP-CCIE programme and MDeC will offer financial support to participants.

“For over ten years, CCIE certification has equipped networking professionals with the highest level of expertise — those capable of tackling the most challenging assignments in their field,” said MDeC CEO YBhg. Dato' Badlisham Ghazali.

“This is the kind of high quality talent that organizations are demanding and are willing to pay for. However, obtaining certification locally has been tough, due to the high cost involved and limited access to suitable labs for training and practice. MDeC and IMS Asia, together with Cisco have developed a specially designed programme that addresses these issues, enabling local ICT professionals to get certified affordably in Malaysia,” he added.

The MSC Malaysia CDP-CCIE Lab Preparation Programme will provide candidates with access to fully-equipped lab facilities at MIMOS-Cisco's Asian Centre of Excellence in Networking Technologies (ACENT) in Technology Park Malaysia. Through weekly lab sessions, candidates will receive 350 hours of hands-on lab experience and a further 100 hours of training through guided tutorials.

By providing candidates with a local facility to prepare for the CCIE exams along with an accelerated and focused training schedule that reduces the total needed lab time, MDeC has succeeded in driving the total cost of the CDP-CCIE programme down with estimated savings of 83%. Under the “MSC Malaysia Get IT Certified!” campaign, part of the training and tutorials fee will be borne by the companies that enroll their engineers into the MSC Malaysia CDP-CCIE Lab Preparation Programme. In addition, MDeC will reimburse the full fees incurred for the CDP-CCIE Written and Lab exams to the candidates who succeed in earning the CCIE certification.

“IMS came up with this programme because we saw a need for the industry to be proactively working with the Government to assist local ICT professionals to increase their skills and knowledge. We chose the CCIE due to the growing complexity of IT and Networking environments in Malaysia which has created a pressing need for engineers with high-level networking skills as presently there are only 71 CCIE qualified Network Engineers in Malaysia out of 15,658 CCIE’s worldwide. The next 3 years we like to see Malaysia in the Top 10 List of CCIE World Index,” said IMS Asia Managing Director Mr. Palaniappan Alagan.

In 2006, IDC ranked Malaysia 9th in the world in Advanced Networking Skills Gap and 10th in General Networking Skills Gap. This shortfall between the supply and demand of networking skills was further highlighted when 55% of companies surveyed reported that they found it difficult to find Network Engineers with the right skills for their organizations.

“Malaysia's ongoing economic expansion places a strong emphasis on ICT to drive business growth, collaboration and interaction,” said Badlisham. “It is critical that we close any and all IT skills gaps to ensure a healthy economic future.”

The MSC Malaysia CDP-CCIE Lab Preparation Programme is a two-phase collaboration with Phase 1 being covered in the MOU between MDeC and IMS Asia. In Phase 2, MDeC and Cisco will work together to set up a CCIE Testing Centre in Cyberjaya that will allow CCIE candidates to sit for their lab exams in Malaysia.

“Cisco has been working to meet the demand for highly skilled Network Engineers throughout the world. The collaboration between MDeC and IMS Asia is a great step toward meeting this need in Malaysia and achieving our goal to develop 60 local CCIEs per year. Eventually, this will help elevate Malaysia’s position to the top 10 ranking in the CCIE population worldwide. Cisco supports this initiative and we are looking forward to future collaborations with MDeC,” said Mr. Kumaran Singaram, Managing Director, Cisco Malaysia.