Industrial Talk 1 - MDEC
Executive Summary
On 24 September 2017 (Monday), a public lecturer talk, titled “Global Online Workforce (GLOW)” was introduced by Sir Mohd Ihsanuddin Jamhari, a Global Online Workforce Master Trainer at N28A Seminar Hall, UTM from 11 am to 12 pm.
Sir Mohd Ihsanuddin Jamhari was previously studied Electrical Engineering Degree in UTeM and further his master in education in UTM, Skudai. Now, he is a fulltime freelancer working in various aspects for instance, photography, ICT services & consultant, project manager and graphic design.
In this talk, the inspiring public lecture introduced Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the concept of e-rezeki and Global Online Workforce (GLOW) along with the idea of GLOW. Generally, MDEC is a government-owned agency that launched in 1st August 1996 to evolve the transformation of Malaysia’s digital economy. Under MDEC, there is three main program which including e-usahawan, e-rezeki and GLOW.
Introduction of Global Online Workforce (GLOW)
Global Online Workforce (GLOW) is a program initiative by MDEC to create a community of digital workers and to generate alternatives incomes among Malaysians from global crowdsourcing platforms. Crowdsourcing platforms is the future as it enables jobs, projects and works to be offered via online platforms globally.
The aim of GLOW is to mobilize a future generation that is equipped with the relevant skills to thrive in a digital platform. This program also provides individual mentorship, online monitoring and coaching to Malaysian freelancers.
Through GLOW, Malaysians are educated on many ways of earning extra income through digital channels. There is three programs offered under GLOW.
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Fast Track Program |
Higher Learning Institution Program |
Premium Program |
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People involved |
1)Freelancer |
Graduates from the faculties of: 1) Computer Science 2) Creative Design 3)Languages& Linguistics 4) Business Administrations 5) Education |
1)Retired workers |
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Training Period |
Individual mentor sessions for 2 days. |
Subjects are elective / fixed for the February / Mac semester and September semester |
12 days Package (3-day mentoring) 14 days Package (5-day mentoring) |
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Value services |
Individual mentor sessions and online monitoring |
Individual mentor sessions and online monitoring throughout the semester |
5 additional modules will be included once during the training period |
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Fee |
FOC |
FOC |
12 days Package (3-day mentoring) – RM4,500 14 days Package (5-day mentoring) – RM2,500 |
Table 1
(Source: Brochure of GLOW)
Furthermore, GLOW collaborates with some of the largest global crowdsourcing platforms such as Freelancer.com and Upwork.com which provides access to thousand of digital works. Also, Glow have local partnership with Freelancing, Favser, Kerja Digital.
DISCUSSION
BENEFITS OF GLOW
GLOW is a program that bring a lot of advantages to Malaysians. It provides Malaysians various career opportunities in the digital field and at the same time, help them generate a stable and consistent income. Not only extra income but incentives will be given to qualified applicants too.
Through GLOW, applicants are introduced to various sources of income from online platforms for example Amazon and Alibaba. GLOW also provides mentorship and coaching to applicants for them to compete against and excel among global freelancers. Under apprentice support program, applicants will be closely guided and coached by freelancing practitioners too.
GLOW is beneficial to Malaysia as it create a community of full time high quality crowd workers among Malaysian. Also, GLOW is in the process nurturing a future generation that is equipped with the relevant skills to thrive in a digital economy. Next, since GLOW is mainly focus on digital field, it allows people to work from home. This makes Malaysians more flexible and are able to work from anywhere, anytime.
How MDEC get people to join GLOW
Recently, MDEC launched a national campaign named “#YOUCANDUIT”. MDEC created eRezeki, eUsahawan and GLOW to enable the B40s to have alternatives income and connect them to digital income opportunities.
MDEC is calling for Malaysians to start making money online through digital platforms by joining GLOW.Through these programs, participants would be trained, qualified and supported with resources to succeed in their online business ventures.
Figure 1
(Source : https://youcanduit.mdec.my/bm)
Who can join the program?
People that listed below are all welcome to join GLOW
- Experienced freelancers / crowd workers in local and global crowdsourcing platforms.
- Committed individuals aspiring to be crowd workers with qualifications and capabilities in various disciplines such as ICT, creative and design, languages and others.
- Experienced offline and face-to-face freelancers.
- Registered individuals in employment programs by ministries, government agencies and at state level.
- Unemployed graduates and retrenched workers with the commitment to become crowd workers.
(Source: Brochure of GLOW)
What is the impact of the program to Malaysia?
This program, GLOW mainly focus on driving the inclusive adoption of digital solutions which means all sorts of works can capitalise on digital technology to maximise their earnings. This in turn provide tremendous impact to the growth of Malaysia’s economy. Furthermore, by creating a culture of continuous learning and offering the platforms, support and resources, a group of future generation which are equipped with the relevant skills is nurturing. This future generation will fulfil Malaysia’s economic needs and propagates national excellence.
Reflection
After attending to this talk, I gained a clearly insight about GLOW. I’m surprise that everyone can earn extra income by working online. This scenario showed that the role of digital technology have transform our lives so much in contrast to the past. Also, GLOW surprised me as everyone with or without knowledge can work under GLOW as it provides mentorship and coaching throughout the learning program which is really beneficial.
As I know GLOW is mainly about earning jobs or projects from global crowdsourcing platforms, I am blessed that I am a computer science student as this program really brighten up my future career path. I need not to worry about finding jobs in companies out there as I can register under Higher Learning Institutions Program and be a fulltime freelancer which will exploring me to various choice of career.
Since GLOW is beneficial especially in my courses computer science, I hope that my school will introduce Digital Workforce as an elective courses to students. In this case, I as the undergraduate are able to gain new skills and experience to work on global crowdsourcing platforms.
Conclusion
To sum up, Global Online Workforce is inevitable. It is a program that will drive Malaysia’s digital economy forward and benefit all Malaysians. Everyone have to grab this income generating opportunities to compete in this day and age of digital economy. The outlooks of GLOW are promising.