Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) has recently launched an online system to assist its graduates seeking employment. The system, developed by the university’s Centre for Industry and Government Collaboration (CIGC) and Centre for Information and Communication Technology (CICT), ensures the visibility of graduates to the relevant segment of industry. Aptly named e-Portfolio, the system first and foremost assists final year students to produce a comprehensive online resume.
UniMAP Vice-Chancellor, Prof Datuk Dr Zul Azhar Zahid Jamal emphasised that through e-Portfolio, the student/graduate no longer has to physically travel or be mobile to look for a job. “All they would have to do is to log-in into the system and fill in the necessary information to build the resume.” While the resume development may not necessarily be a novel idea, what happens afterwards is.
Once the resume is produced, it can be viewed by all industries that are connected to, and have collaborative ventures with UniMAP when they log-in into the system. This way, the resume can be viewed and evaluated, and if organisations wish to know more, they may then request for an interview with the potential candidate. Zul Azhar states that the development of e-Portfolio is based on the concept of demand and supply in economics. UniMAP neither imposes fee to industries nor to its students who wish to make use of the system. “To date, 3000 UniMAP student resumes are now in e-Portfolio with 50 industry players already registered as potential employers to the graduates. Students have the opportunity to use e-Portfolio while waiting for the university’s Convocation or during Industrial Training. I believe that the system will ease the job-search process for our graduates, and will also raise the level of UniMAP graduates’ employability rate within six months of study completion”.