Brunei students leave for S'pore to explore ICT industry

Four students from the Institut Teknologi Brunei (ITB) yesterday left for Singapore to undergo a six-month internship programme at various Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies in the city-state.

The students were recently awarded with the newly-launched internship programme namely the Internship Student Programme for ICT Related Education or "INSPIRE" by the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry (AITI).

The programme offers the opportunity for students to apply and enhance their knowledge and skills through meaningful work experience and interaction with professional people in a real-life working environment.

Speaking to The Brunei Times at the Departure Hall of Brunei International Airport, the four students shared what they want to achieve from their experiences working in a corporate environment in the field of ICT.

Abdul Rasyid Hj Osman, 25, who is currently taking BDTVEC Higher National Diploma in Internet and Multimedia Development at ITB, said that he has set his goals for this industry placement. "I hope to gain valuable experience from this internship programme and learn new knowledge in a working environment, especially in Singapore, a country that has advanced technology," said Abdul Rasyid.

In school, he said that he was interested in multimedia. Previously, he and his peers from Sultan Saiful Rijal Technical College (MTSSR) won the tertiary category in the 2011's Brunei ICT Award (BICTA). Also in the same year, his team made Brunei proud when MTSSR won the Merit Award for Tertiary Category during the 2011's Asia Pacific ICT Award (APICTA) held in Thailand. In Singapore, he will be attached to TechSailor Singapore, a social media marketing company. "I hope that the experience and knowledge I will gain in Singapore can be applied here in Brunei," he said.

Sharing a similar sentiment was Muhammad Naqiuddin Ihsan Mat Japar, who is undergoing BDTVEC Higher National Diploma in Internet and Multimedia Development. The 20-year old said that he wanted a hands-on real-life experience and to be involved in work projects. "My expectation is that I want to experience real-life working environment, to gain leadership skills and be able to complete work projects given by the company," said Muhammad Naqiuddin Ihsan, who is interested in learning website design and software engineering. During the six-month programme, he will be attached to Hello Technology Pte Ltd, Singapore, which is a software engineering company involved in telecom industry.

Another ITB student, Ak Muhammad Hardine Pg Hj Marali, 20, who is undertaking BDTVEC Higher National Diploma in Computing said that during the internship programme he wants to learn not only in the ICT field and its development, but also to discover more about Singapore and its culture. "I hope the lessons that I will get from the experts will increase my knowledge and experience in the ICT field and I will share them with my peers once I return to Brunei," said Ak Muhammad Hardine, who is interested in biometrics. He will be attached to Cicada Cube Pte Ltd Singapore, a software engineering company involved in biometric software development.

Dk Siti Rasyidah Pg Abd Azis, 20, who is currently taking BDTVEC Higher National Diploma in Information System said that she wants to gain new experience, learn new skills and polish her talent in ICT related education, especially in programming using C++. "I want to bring along my knowledge from Singapore to Brunei so that I can help to improve Brunei's information technology," said Dk Siti Rasyidah, who will be attached to XID Technologies Pte Ltd Singapore, a company specialising in facial biometric recognition.

Present to bid them farewell at the airport was Adi Shamsul Hj Sabli, acting chairman of AITI and deputy permanent secretary at the Prime Minister's Office, AITI's senior management and senior officials from ITB. AITI hopes that upon the completion of the programme, the INSPIRE Award recipients will gain valuable working experience which will better prepare them when they join the local workforce after they graduate from their course of study, said a statement issued by AITI.