GEMS

 I just so called graduated from this GEMS programme. It is an acronym for Graduate Employability Management Scheme held by the government and run by Khazanah Nasional and Irshad HR Consulting. It is a programme where the graduates can enhance their employability and develop skills.

I’m not going to explain a lot about the programme as you can simply browse thru its website mygemsportal.com.my. And I strongly recommend you guys to join it as it is very beneficial.

The allowance, yes it is not that much (that’s why we call it allowance and not salary!). But the skills and competencies that you are about to gain and acquire there are something I would say priceless.

In fact, you don’t need to pay even a single cent to be a participant of the programme.

 I believe that as a young graduate we really need to realize that we are lacking of a lot of things. I mean competencies. Having known that, we MUST find ways to overcome it. Never feel complacent, please! Especially during these recession days, we don’t have any other options to opt other than improving skills needed by the employers in order to healthily compete with retrenched (well-experienced) people.

2 and half months of classroom training which filled with valuable and significant modules i.e. presentation skills, interpersonal skills, business English, project management, just to name a few will equip you with many critical demanded competencies.

And after that, you will be sent to any GLCs, MNCs, or private companies with the aim of giving you exposures of real working life. 6 months is test periods for you to make use of everything that u’ve learnt. If you’re really outstanding and perform very well, u will be absorbed by the company but it depends on the vacancies as well.

Discounting the probability of being absorbed by the company, still the experiences of working with those big organizations for 6 months are something that you should be benefited from.

I think it is enough to picture out how meaningful the GEMS programme is to me and to young graduates.

I did learn a lot by attending the programme and I am pretty sure all of you will do.