IBM TEAM TO HELP ENHANCE SKILLS TRAINING IN KUANTAN

Corporate Service Corps Team to help local organisations enhance competitiveness in the global marketplace

PETALING JAYA - 18 February 2013 – IBM announced today that its eighth Corporate Service Corps (CSC) assignment in Kuantan, Pahang in Malaysia, has begun.

A team of 12 volunteers, identified as high achievers and potential leaders from across the globe, have arrived in the state capital to deploy essential projects that are set to help local organisations from diverse industries to develop and enhance the necessary skills required to grow in the global marketplace.

Hailing from Brazil, USA, Mexico, Poland, Austria, Canada, Colombia, India and China, the team will work on several projects during the month-long assignment with both the University Malaysia Pahang (UMP) and the Kuantan Municipal Council.

For UMP, the team will be working on enhancing and improving the curricular for the institution's IT Project Management Academy, as well as reviewing and evaluating the current business plan of the University for ICT, especially in the areas of skills, knowledge and best practices.

The team will also work with the Kuantan Municipal Council to help develop strategic business and management plans for the council's selected projects, and in turn enable the organisation to reach out more effectively and better serve their respective communities.

“We are very happy that IBM is able to utilize our most valuable resource, our people, in places that can most benefit from their expertise, and provide organisations with experiences from which they can gain broad leadership and cross-cultural experiences,” said Ramanathan Sathiamutty, Managing Director of IBM Malaysia.

“Cities like Kuantan, are continually transforming and reinventing themselves to enhance their ability to contribute to Malaysia’s success. This CSC team assignment will be an excellent opportunity for the University Malaysia Pahang, and the Kuantan Municipal Council to leverage the experience that the IBMers will bring to the projects,” added Sathiamutty.

Since its inception in 2008, the IBM CSC programme has deployed more than 50 IBM volunteers, to support a broad range of business, non-government and government organisations, and work on high-impact projects across Malaysia in Penang, Johor, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.

The CSC provides IBMers with high quality leadership development while delivering proven solutions for communities and organisations in emerging markets. The programme empowers IBM employees as global citizens by sending groups of 10 to 15 individuals from different countries with a range of skills to an emerging market for four-week community-based assignments. During the assignment, participants work on community-driven economic development projects that impact business, technology and society. The programme has sent over 1,400 participants in over 120 teams to more than 20 countries around the world.