WorldSkills Malaysia University Challenge 2021 officially begins!

WorldSkills Malaysia University Challenge (WSMUC 2021), which is set to be the benchmark for skills competitions among higher learning institutions, is now officially launched.

Gathering 55 participants from 11 institutes of higher learning nationwide, the two-day competition is taking place virtually starting tomorrow which entails four focused areas of future skills namely Mobile Applications Development, Cyber Security, Mechanical Engineering CAD, and Building Information Modelling (BIM).

Notably, Malaysian students will also compete with the other four invited technical students from South Korea, China and Singapore.

Deputy Director General (Development), Department of Skills Development (DSD), Dr. Mohamad Sulaiman said, WSMUC 2021 aims to introduce the future skills that are in line with the contested fields at the WorldSkills Competition (WSC).

“The global skill competitions saw the addition of contested fields to keep pace with the development of industries around the world. For instance, the number of contested fields at WSC in 2017 has increased from 51 to 56 in 2019, and the latest 63 fields will be introduced at the upcoming WSC Shanghai 2022.

“This is not the first strategic collaboration between DSD and UniKL Malaysia France Institute (MFI). In fact, several online competitions have been hosted by UniKL MFI throughout the year, both nationally and internationally.

“I encourage such competitions to be continued in the future by expanding the list of new future skills and gaining more participation, especially from Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) university students,” said him during his inaugural speech at the virtual opening ceremony of WSMUC 2021, today.

Also present virtually, Deputy Director General, Project Monitoring Office (PMO) Division at DSD, Mohd Yazid Awalludin; Head of Campus and Dean of UniKL MFI, Prof. Ts. Dr. Jamel Othman; as well as Deputy Dean International, Industrial & Institutional Partnership (IIIP) UniKL MFI, Mohd Zaki Mohamed.

This is the first time WSMUC 2021 is organised by UniKL MFI with collaboration from DSD where it features four judging panels for each future skill.

According to Jamel, Mobile Applications Development area witnesses nine participations including two students from Singapore; Cyber Security (12 participations); Mechanical Engineering CAD (26 participations including two students from South Korea and China); and BIM (8 participants).

He said, the competition involves few universities and institutes of higher learning such as Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation (APU), Mara High Skills College (KKTM) as well as National Youth Higher Skills Institutes (IKTBN).