KUCHING: Sarawak Skills Development Centre (SSDC) will be setting up an Advanced Automotive Training College (AATC) in the near future.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg revealed this at SSDC’s 25th Anniversary Dinner held at Riverside Majestic Hotel here last Friday.
He said the state government had agreed to the plan and added that the centre would also have a campus to train people in Automotive Engineering based on hydrogen.
“Sarawak is going to go for clean energy (hydrogen) that leads to hydrogen economy where the feedstock comes from water. This will become a basis for us to run our vehicles.
“Today, on trial, we have two cars and three buses driven by hydrogen. This means that we need to have hydrogen technicians,” he said.
Abang Johari stressed that a successful nation in the future will depend on its intellectual capital — the capacity of the people based on their whole intellectual knowledge.
“Thus, industries as well as talents must be upgraded through proper training programme and, at the same time, equipped with the latest methodology and technology that will become the lifeline for the success of new industries, be it manufacturing, agriculture, or services like tourism.
“Moving into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0) requires not only your intelligence but also the computation of intelligence as well as your knowledge on hardware — the devices. This revolution revolves around artificial intelligence (AI) as a core for you to participate in the new industries,” he explained.
As for agriculture, he revealed that the state government is looking to implement smart farming with Internet of Things (IoT) to obtain information of the plants’ growth.
“This will be controlled by a central data and a device which needs a worker who can read the data.
“After you have produced your crops and are ready to sell them, you may utilise mobile payment like the Sarawak Pay application. This is where digital transactions occur between the seller and buyer but you first have to know your equipment.”
Abang Johari also disclosed that the state government was conducting a research with a private firm to produce a device with a sensor to tell when the oil palms would be ready for collection.
“These are all based on AI which means the whole industry will change and demanded skills will change.
“Hopefully by the next 25 years, SSDC will be able to develop and produce the workforce who are able to adapt,” he added.
Over 500 SSDC and i-CATS staff and invited guests attended the dinner.
Also present were SSDC chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Abdul Aziz Husain; Deputy State Secretary Datuk Mohamad Abu Bakar Marzuki; permanent secretary to the Ministry of Welfare, Community Well-being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dr Saadiah Abdul Samat; PPKS director Hallman Sabri, Petronas Sarawak general manager Zulaihi Mohd Mentali and Public Works Department (JKR) Sarawak director Datuk Zuraimi Sabki.
