GRADUAN® 2019: A Year in Review

By Ahmed Wafi

Everything that went down this year in the GRADUAN® Universe

Our 25th year as Malaysia’s Premier Career Platform was our best year yet! Once again, our annual career fairs proved to be a hit, attracting nearly 75,000 local and overseas talent. There were also a bunch of other events like the new GRADUAN® Career Bootcamps that helped undergraduates be career ready while our ASPIRE+ Networking Series brought together Malaysia’s brightest working professionals with Malaysia’s best employers for meaningful networking and engaging forums. Here’s a rundown.

The Malaysian Career Fair
In collaboration with the United Kingdom and Eire Council for Malaysian Students (UKEC), we organised our 15th edition of the fair where more than 5,100 talents from across the United Kingdom converge at the Royal Lancaster in London from 6 to 9 April to meet over 30 of Malaysia’s most renowned organisations. The fair was supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs with the Minister of Economic Affairs himself YB Dato’ Seri Azmin Ali officiating the event and delivering a keynote address. What made the fair exciting were the interview sessions that took place where graduates were hired on the spot!

GRADUAN Aspire
Our flagship career fair hit its ninth year running and it was our best event yet! More than 68,000 talents filled up three halls at the KL Convention Centre to meet nearly 100 top Malaysian employers over the weekend of 13 and14 July. Officiated once more by YB Dato’ Seri Azmin Ali, one of the event’s highlight was the ASPIRE 500 Conference where panellists featuring speakers from Boost eWallet, Fave, Maybank MAE, Touch ‘n Go and Stashaway discussed the future of Malaysia’s cashless society. One-hundred and fifty top performing working professionals were also invited to our exclusive ASPIRE+ Corporate Luncheon where they got to meet and interact with Malaysia’s top CEOs in a casual dining setting.

The Australia Career Fair
Our 15th Australia Career Fair was once again held in collaboration with the Malaysian Students’ Council of Australia (MASCA) at the Crown Conference Centre in Melbourne on 5 October with interview sessions taking place the following day at the same venue. We recorded more than 1,500 registrants hopeful for a career opportunity and nearly 20 organisations to hire the best ASEAN talent down under. Prior to the fair, organisations were given access to the GRADUAN® resume database so that they could organise interview sessions with these talent accordingly during the fair.

The ASPIRE+ Networking Series
Held three times throughout the year, the ASPIRE+ Networking Series aims at connecting Malaysia’s brightest working professionals (with a minimum of three years’ work experience) with top hiring managers in a casual networking session while also getting thought leaders to share their experience and more at a forum. The first event took place on 21 March where we packed the Common Ground in Bukit Bintang with 150 top working professionals and hiring managers from over 10 renowned Malaysian-based employers. Our forum for the night featured speakers from Maybank, Digi, British American Tobacco, RHB Banking Group and Google Malaysia. Read more about it here.

After the Aspire+ Corporate Luncheon during GRADUAN Aspire, the third Aspire+ Networking Series saw it held on 26 November at WeWork Equatorial Plaza! This time with participation from 15 Malaysian organisations! Read all about it here.

GRADUAN Career Bootcamps
This year, we introduced a new initiative where undergraduates from selected universities were given the opportunity to join us for a complimentary one-day career workshop. Each workshop consisted of four training modules that were specially developed based on insights provided to GRADUAN® from top Malaysian employers. The modules included effective CV writing, nailing that job interview, having the right workplace attitude among many others. Participants were also asked to take part in activities designed to help prepare them for Malaysia’s energetic workforce. We organised over 50 Career Bootcamps across Malaysia and Australia!

Looking forward to 2020!

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