Mr Lui Tuck Yew: Ultimately, the development and growth of the infocomm sector will depend largely on the quality of people we are able to attract, develop and nurture.

The National Infocomm Scholarship (NIS) marked its seventh instalment by handing out awards to 27 deserving students. The ceremony took place at Fusionopolis on 2 August 2010, with Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, giving out the scholarships.

NIS was started in 2004 to help groom the next generation of leaders in the infocomm industry. Scholars pursue degree programmes locally and abroad, and undergo mentoring and internship with local and international companies. After their studies, they join their sponsoring companies over a short bond period.

In his speech, Mr Lui pointed out that, despite the economic downturn, infocomm is still doing well in Singapore. The industry notched up 8 per cent revenue growth to hit S$62.74 billion last year.

“Ultimately, the development and growth of the infocomm sector will depend largely on the quality of people we are able to attract, develop and nurture,” Mr Lui added. Currently, 140,800 professionals work in the infocomm sector. The figure is expected to rise to 190,000 by 2015.

He said that the various courses of study and the work attachments will give the NIS scholars technical know-how and an understanding of major issues and opportunities in the business world of infocomm. However, he also stressed the importance of having an inquisitive mind, and the ability to analyse information and synthesise ideas beyond their specialised expertise.

Twenty-seven students were awarded the National Infocomm Scholarships this year.

On their part, the sponsoring companies said programmes such as the NIS play a key role in talent development. “We got involved in the programme because we fundamentally believe in the grassroots development of infocomm and especially cyber security,” said Mr Doug Stuart, Chief Executive Officer, Southeast Asia, stratsec, a leading independent cyber security company. “The NIS scholarship programme is one of the best approaches to this type of development that we have seen around the world and we are very excited and privileged to be a part of this,”
he continued.

This is the first year that stratsec is involved in the NIS. “Our candidate Muhammad Hirman bin Abu Bakar is an outstanding young man and we are looking forward to him joining our team and also providing him with support needed to develop into a great cyber security professional,” said Mr Stuart, whose company offers consulting, testing and research services in Australia and Southeast Asia.

Another sponsoring organisation is business analytics software provider SAS. “We need people with the right skills and background to work with our customers,” explained Mr Bill Lee, Managing Director of SAS. “When IDA approached us, we thought it was an excellent opportunity. It opens up a large pool of potential skills, and we have good students."

“This is a good opportunity to work with the government to encourage students to take up business analytics as a career of choice. We also work with universities to make sure the next generation of graduates have the right skills.”

If the sponsors are happy, more so, are the students. Ms Amanda Chew, who is sponsored by Microsoft to study computer science at Brown University, loves her subject. “In school, I was torn between science and arts. Computer science allows me to integrate both. It’s like managing creativity – you have an idea to create something absolutely new, in matrices, and make it into a programme that maybe the whole world will use.”

For Mr Danny Seow, the best part of his flagship masters award is Carnegie Mellon University, which is “a very reputable school of information systems management”.  He will spend a year there, and is thrilled that Accenture chose him as their scholar. “I have the passion and the aggression to succeed,” he says, “I just need the finances. I’d like to thank Accenture, IDA and my family for supporting me.”