The chants and cheers from the participants were still heard as the VIPs left the ballroom at the closing ceremony of the 34th Engineering, Development, Motivation and Awareness Training or EDMAT-34, recently.

The participants congratulated and cheered each other for the fabulous time that they had during the program. EDMAT-34, sponsored by Malakoff, was held from 30th June to 7th July 2012, involved 91 participants from Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Representative from Malakoff, En Mohd Shokri Daud, Vice President, Technical Support Group, was impressed with the energy and enthusiasm reflected by the participants at the closing ceremony. He said that the participants have indeed benefited from the program by showing tremendous amount of self-esteem and confidence. He added that with the right training and adequate knowledge in engineering, they will certainly stand out at interviews and easily secure a job with future employers.

The participants were exposed to public speaking, forums, debates and games to improve their inter-personal skills, self-confidence and creative thinking. En Mohamad Fardaus Rahmat from Human Resource department of Malakoff gave a talk on career opportunities in the power industry to the participants and provided them with information on career paths and advancements for undergraduates of various engineering disciplines. The participants were also taken to site visits, which included Tanjung Bin Power Plant, owned by Malakoff. Besides visiting the plant, they were given a talk on the running of the plant, which is a 2,100MW coal-fired power plant, the largest privately-owned plant of its kind in Malaysia.

Mr Jacky Lee, head of the organizing committee of EDMAT-34, said that the program has been around since 1978 and is organized annually by the Engineering Society of University Malaya. EDMAT is a non-profit program aimed to develop, motivate and create awareness in engineering undergraduates and has attracted the participation of overseas universities in the ASEAN region.

"EDMAT is a comprehensive program which covers all the aspects to accomplish both mental and physical development of the participants. It is also aimed to strike a balance between academic and interpersonal development of the undergraduates. The participants came from various backgrounds and encourages an exchange of culture amongst the two countries," he added.

Miss Rini Indah, a participant from Indonesia, only had praises for the program. “EDMAT-34 has opened my eyes and given me a chance to get acquainted with fellow participants with the same interest. The program also gave me the opportunity to improve my public speaking skills and I am impressed with the site visits where we get a sneak preview of our future working life.”

As an engineering company with a stronghold in the power industry, Malakoff will continue to support such beneficial programs organized by engineering students in the future. In addition to strengthening its branding at the university, program such as this is also aimed to put Malakoff in the radar as an employer of choice and to attract the right talents to join its workforce after they graduate in their respective disciplines.