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In his book See You at The Top, Zig Ziglar shared an interesting story how one’s perception can lead you into doing and become what you believe.

There was a guy by the name of Victor, who, at the age of fifteen, was told by his teacher he would never finish school and that he should drop out and learn a trade. Victor believed the advice and for the next seventeen years he was an itinerant doing a variety of odd jobs. He had been told that he was a ‘dunce’, and for 17 years he acted like one.

When he was 32 years old, an amazing transformation took place. An evaluation revealed that he was a genius with an IQ of 161. And from the moment on, he started acting like one. He started writing books, secured a number of patents and become a successful businessman. At the peak of his life, he was elected as chairman of International Mensa Society.

The story of Victor makes you wonder how many geniuses we have wandering around acting like dunces because someone told them they were not too bright, not competent, stupid and so on.

Obviously, in this case, Victor did not acquire a tremendous amount of knowledge. He did, however suddenly acquired a tremendous amount of added confidence. The end result was a more effective and more productive human being. When he believe himself as a different person, he started acting differently.

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According to Jack Canfield’s teaching, most successful people have low tolerance for excessive planning and talking but high anticipation to act. They want to get started. They want the game to begin.

While planning has its place, it must be kept in perspective. Some people spend their whole lives waiting for the perfect time to do something. There’s rarely a ‘perfect’ time to do anything. What is important is to just get started. Get into the game, and get on the playing field.

No waiting.

No waiting for the right person to come along.
No waiting for a more favorable horoscope.
No waiting for the new administration to take over.
No waiting for you to get 2 years older.
No waiting for someone to discover you.
No waiting for a clear set of instructions.
No waiting for year-end bonuses.
And so on.

When you take action, you trigger all kind of things that will inevitably carry you to success. You let those around you know that you are serious in your intention. People wake up and start paying attention. People with similar goals become aligned with you. You begin to learn things from your experience that cannot be learned from listening to others or from reading books. You begin to attract others who will support and encourage you.

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A degree alone is not enough to succeed in today’s competitive jobmarket. To give undergrads the extra edge, local public universities have integrated soft skills into their programmes.

With an estimated 100,000 students set to graduate from public universities this year – not counting the thousands completing their studies at private institutions and overseas – the company above should not have a problem finding a suitable candidate to fill its vacancy.

Unfortunately, as many employers have oft complained, most Malaysian graduates lack the necessary soft skills vital for work such as communication, problem solving and team work skills.

According to Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakar, it is this lack of soft skills which is largely responsible for the difficulty faced by some 90,000 young people in finding employment in Malaysia.

To address this problem, the Higher Education Ministry recently introduced a soft skills module to prepare students for the world of work.
The module is a combination of all the ideas and programmes from the 17 public institutions nationwide, says Assoc Prof Thanthawi Jauhari Ahmad who is head of the Career, Counselling and Alumni centre at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM).

The standardised soft skills module allows the universities to share their best practices and enhance existing programmes at the same time, he says.

“In UiTM, we start from Day One to prepare students for work.

“This new module adds detail to our current student development programmes.”

At the university, he adds, employers’ expectations have always been emphasised.

“Our graduates are more marketable than their counterparts fro  other universities due to their strength of character, entrepreneurship skills and good command of English; our course are tailored to market needs,” he says.

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INTI college has teamed up with Malaysia’s premier recruitment agencies Jobstreet and Jobmarket with aim to provide a quality education with a focus on career development. With the collaboration INTI is hoping to produce more and more graduates having the right skills needed by the job market in Malaysia.

The need of shaping early career has become inevitable due to higher competition in the job market with tens of thousands  graduates produced each year to enter the employment industry. With the stiff competition, it is important for students and graduates-to-be to engage themselves with the right parties and organizations to help them landing their job fast.

The collaboration also allows closer interactions between the graduates and potential employers. INTI will have their website integrated with Jobstreet’s career page where the students will be able to log in and surf for job vacancies available in the website. Similarly, Jobstreet also will be able to identify talents and help them finding their dream career of choice.

The collaboration with JobMarket, a subsidiary of BASIS Group of Companies, will boost the internship programmes for ICSJ students. JobMarket will help students to pursue their internships in various corporations and businesses, thus allowing students an opportunity to gain working experience before graduation.

JobMarket will also organise talks on internship guidance.

Technorati Tags: inti college, jobstreet malaysia, jobmarket, malaysia job

If you’re thinking of expanding your knowledge, read! Yes, reading enhances your knowledge and feed you with unlimited information and news.

By reading motivational materials you will get your feet standing back on two feet when you’re down and demotivated. By reading the newspapers you get yourself acquainted with the latest happenings within Malaysia and around the world. By reading magazines, you trade your waiting moment for your next flight to Langkawi with a precious knowledge sharpening session. It goes on and on.
Yes, just read anything. Books, ebooks, novels, newspapers, magazines and so on. This leads to question: how much you should read?

Well, according to research in the US, the highest paid Americans read an average of two to three hours per day.

How do we fare? Sadly enough, the reading habit of Malaysians is very low. On average 1 person only read one book per year! Isn’t that shocking. More than 70% of adults do not go into bookstores and libraries.

It seems we rather watch movie than reading.

Have you read any book today?

Technorati Tags: reading habit, motivation, book

A plan to double the periods for English lessons will be tried out in schools in a bid to boost the pupils’ proficiency in the language.

A pilot project to give Year One students 18 English lessons a week instead of the present eight would begin soon in 50 schools, said Education Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Ahamad Sipon.

The year-long project, called “ELiTE or Early Literacy Through English programme”, will see the Mathematics and Science lessons, of which there are seven and three periods a week respectively, effectively turned into English lessons.

The Mathematics and Science teachers will continue teaching their pupils but their focus will be to get the seven-year-olds more comfortable with the English language.

“We have selected schools with poor results in the English language, especially those in the rural areas. We want to give them a strong foundation so that the pupils can grasp the subjects better in the following years. This means giving them greater exposure to English from the start,” Ahamad said.

Full story from News Straits Times.

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Maths and Science teachers in malaysia are set to be tested for their English proficiency by the Ministry of Education, and they may find themselves having to go back to school to polish up their English.

The test will commence next month, where the teachers will be tested stage by stage, before they can be allowed to continue teaching the 2 subjects competently. Accoding to Teacher Training division director, if they do not perform well, they will be required to attend courses in English.

According to him, the one-off evaluation is aimed at improving their communication skills and ensuring that they have a good command of the language in all areas, including vocabulary and pronunciation.

“We want them to attain a certain level of competency in teaching the subjects,” he added.

The test will have a written component, an assessment of listening skills and multiple-choice answers for the grammar section.

The teaching of the two subjects in English was introduced in Year One, Form One and Lower Six in 2003. But since then, many parents have voiced concerns over the quality of teaching the subjects.

Their children, they said, were unable to follow the lessons properly as the teachers were less than proficient in English.

Technorati Tags: malaysia education, malaysia ministry of education