Prasarana, UTHM collaborate to nurture rail industry professionals – but what about public transport industry professionals?

TRANSIT took note of this interesting article about collaboration between Prasarana and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) to develop more rail industry professionals.

Prasarana, UTHM collaborate to nurture rail industry professionals (The Borneo Post)

31 January 2012

KUALA LUMPUR: Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (Prasarana) and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in an effort to create professionals in the rail industry and improve the quality of Malaysia’s public transportation system.

Prasarana group managing director Datuk Shahril Mokhtar said that under the MoU, UTHM would introduce a new Masters in Railway Engineering course this year where qualified staff of Prasarana’s rail division will have preference in gaining entry to the university.

“This we believe will open a new era in pursuance of excellence in education and further uplift the standard of Malaysia’s railway industry specifically, and public transportation in general,” he told reporters after the signing here.

Shahril inked the MoU for Prasarana while UTHM was represented by its vice-chancellor, Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Noh Dalimin.

Elaborating, Shahril said the strategic collaboration with institutions of higher learning was part of Prasarana’s initiatives towards enhancing the quality of its staff, describing them as the company’s key assets in the realisation of its Go Forward Plan (GFP) targets.

“Today also marked a new beginning in Prasarana’s emphasis on development of human capital and staff resourcefulness as we continue rigorous efforts to pursue the agenda of our GFP, which has entered its second year,” he said.

Shahril said that through the programme, Prasarana aimed to inculcate values like innovative thinking, operational excellence and enhanced efficiency among its staff. — Bernama

TRANSIT Says:

As you can imagine, we at TRANSIT are always pleased to hear of initiatives to improve the skills & knowledge & capability of the Malaysian rail industry, towards improving railway engineering and creating a new generation of professional railway engineers.

But a public transport industry cannot be built by railway engineers and civil engineers alone. There is also a need for professional public transport planners, regulators, and experts in the organization and management of public transport services, public transport information relay, communications, asset management, and a thousand other jobs that make for an effective public transport system.

So while we are certainly pleased about the initiative to build up Malaysia’s rail industry, we also need to take steps to develop Malaysia’s public transport industry.

Perhaps it will be SPAD who takes the lead there. But mark what TRANSIT says – someone has to do this job because without this, we will never truly improve public transport in Malaysia.