Industry 4.0 is the digital transformation of manufacturing and value-creation processes across industries. It brings a fundamental shift to our everyday life and the world we live in. As Malaysia embarks on its journey towards greater digitalisation and sustainable development, the nation is pouring efforts into ensuring the current workforce remains relevant in targeted highly skilled segments.
As a local homegrown Company, ViTrox acknowledges the importance of a healthy local talent pool in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (“STEM”). We believe that a STEM-driven generation is influential in shifting Malaysia towards Industry 4.0. Therefore, we have been taking initiatives to cultivate and empower the young generation, especially in our local communities, hoping to address the urgent needs of STEM talents. In 2022, ViTrox engaged with 1,076 students through STEM-related activities. By 2030, we aim to engage and touch the lives of 3,000 students to embrace STEM.
The initiatives also address three (3) of the UN SDGs, including No Poverty (Goal 1), Quality Education (Goal 4) and Reduce Inequalities (Goal 10).
ViTrox dedicates our efforts to cultivating students in all educational stages. For more initiatives and details about how we contribute to STEM talent cultivation, please refer to Talent Attraction and Retention.
Our education arm, ViTrox Academy Sdn. Bhd. (“VA”), organises technical skill and soft-skill programmes in a variety of workshops, short and long courses, exploratory events and competitions. We leverage ViTrox Makerspace as an innovation playground for young students to explore the amazement of “making” under the guidance of coaches and industry engineers. Besides, VA joined efforts with Arus Academy to run a six (6)-month V-Apprentice workshop.
To enhance the exposure of students to STEM fields, ViTrox supported STEM initiatives through educational programmes and event sponsorship. Furthermore, we also strive to empower future female talents in technology by sponsoring Girls in Engineering and Technology (“GET”) 2022 and Women In Zcience (“WIZ”) 2022. WIZ is a six (6)-month programme whereby ViTrox collaborated with Tech Dome Penang to share STEM knowledge with 40 female students from Penang Chinese Girls’ High School.
We established ViTrox College to provide industry-centric, inspiring and inclusive education with a strong emphasis on engaging and practical learning environments. ViTrox College is the first institution in Malaysia to integrate the work-based learning (“WBL”) teaching method into diploma programmes. The College graduates will be equipped with practical experience, hence, making them ready to immediately join the workforce.
ViTrox co-sponsored the robotics competition FIRST® Tech Challenge 2021/2022, an event organised by Penang Science Cluster (“PSC”) with the aim to create a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among the young in Malaysia. Five (5) engineers from ViTrox stepped forward to volunteer and coach two (2) groups of participating students from secondary schools to design and build a robot that can execute specific tasks, like picking up objects and placing them in their rightful place. The mentors coached participants in robotics skills, such as computer-aided design (“CAD”) drawing, electronic drawing and three-dimensional (“3D”) printing, at ViTrox Makerspace during the weekends. The four (4)-month project was a long journey because the students had minimal knowledge of industrial design, computer programming and electrical and electronic engineering.
Both teams coached by our volunteer engineers received significant recognition in the competition. Students from Chung Ling Butterworth (N.T.) High School, with a team named Team Robodes, had won the championship and received the “Motivate Award”. The team is recognised for working together as a team and embracing the culture and spirit of FIRST together as a team. Additionally, Team Zero from Convent Dato Keramat Secondary won the “Honourable Mention” award, ranking in the top five (5). The team mentors also secured the “Compass Award” and were recognised as being the most helpful and inspiring ones.
ViTrox participated in Penang International Science Fair (“PISF”) 2022 as a venue partner, showcasing the wonders of science through various hands-on activities and exhibitions.
Over the six (6)-day event, there were 493 primary and secondary school students taking part in the activities.
Our people volunteered to organise “V-See the 3D World” workshops for primary students to create a 3D hologram and a cool pair of paper 3D glasses to master the basic theories of light reflections and anaglyph 3D.
Under the guidance of our workshop coaches, secondary students participating in the “V-Inspection Machine” workshop built an inspection machine prototype to spot the defects in items and learn about the optics, lights and refraction.
Besides workshops, ViTrox also held a career fair “V-Inspire You” to further strengthen the young generation’s interest in the field of science and technology.
