180 undergraduates from 13 public universities participate in the World Software Testing Program

The World Software Testing Program (WSTP) is a collaboration between Ministry of Higher Education, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), Technology Education Leader Sdn Bhd (TEL) and MicroFocus/HP. The program was carried out for 8 weeks between October through December 2017 and has successfully trained 180 Information Technology and Engineering undergraduates from 13 public universities. The program is under the Ministry of Higher Education’s Graduate Employability grant (GE).

TEL is the authorized training partner for MicroFocus/HP. The program was conducted virtually across 8 different states. Program participants were located in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Kedah, Penang, Johor, Pahang, Sabah and Sarawak. Instructors were conducting the training virtually from the United Kingdom and Kuala Lumpur. Participating universities were Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Univeesiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTEM), Universiti Tun Hussien Onn (UTHM), Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (IIUM), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris (UPSI), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT).

The program started in 2009 with a pilot project at UiTM, later between 2013-2015, it was offered to IIUM, UM, UMP, UPM, UTM and UniMAP. The WSTP has successfully trained 1,360 undergraduates for the past 9 years. MicroFocus is the 7th largest software company in the world after a merger with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) this year, and they are the leader in software testing tools market. Their technology and tools are in demand and are used worldwide. This training helps the employability of our graduates by giving them the state of the art knowledge in the field of software testing and quality assurance. The program boast a 95% employability rate 6 months upon the completion of the program. 

The WSTP consist of 7 training modules covering every aspect of software testing. Training modules include, ‘Think Like a Tester’, Test Management, Performance Testing, Cloud Based testing, Mobile Application Testing, Automated Functional Testing and Soft skills. The program was designed to focus on practical skills and hands on activities. Participants are exposed to live software testing tools complete with licenses in line with the current technology in the corporate world. The WSTP graduates receive a total of 10 Certificate of Completion and Certificate of Exam. 

Based on the Economic Planning Unit’s (EPU) ‘Software Testing Roadmap Study 2013’ report produced by IDC, the global software  testing services market to be worth US$94 billion (RM379 billion) in 2020. The report also estimated the Malaysian software testing services market was worth about USD$319 billion (RM1.29 billion) in 2012, and that this would grow to USD$608 million in 2020, if left to natural market growth. However, with aggressive intervention to drive the sector, the domestic market worth could grow to US$2.9 billion in 2020. The report also stated, by 2020, Malaysia needs about 30,000 software testers to meet the local demand. Our WSTP graduates are industry ready and able to work in software testing jobs. This can help reduce Malaysia’s dependency on skilled software testing resources from other country and reduce the outflow of our currency. We have proposed to and requested from the government for a grant to train 5,000 students for the next 5 years to fulfill the need of local software testers in Malaysia.

Moving forward Technology Education Leader and Universiti Malaysia Pahang are in progress of setting up a Testing Center of Excellence (TCOE). The TCOE lab will be built with complete automated software testing licenses to provide a base for software testing and quality assurance related research and training for students from all IPTAs and government personnel. The TCOE will also include technologies to carry out testing for Internet of Things (IOTs). The lab will focus on research and development on IoT and testing. 

Prepared by Technology Education Leader Sdn Bhd