APU Mega Career Fair Makes Grand Return

Over 7.5k jobs, 120 employers, 14 industries, thousands of CVs received
Launches collaboration model ‘Exclusive Partner Engagement Programme’

A very strong turnout saw APU’s Mega Career Fair making a welcome return after two years of interruption by the pandemic. Thousands of job seekers thronged the 120 booths set up for a day at the Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) campus on 29^th June 2022.

More than 400 recruiting personnel from top-notch companies in 14 different industries, were awed by the enthusiastic participation of APU’s graduating and existing students as well as walk-in visitors.

50% of the companies were open to hiring international students, echoing the multicultural demographic at APU with an international student community of more than 13,000 students from more than 130 countries.

“The registered number of vacancies offered includes 3,498 full-time positions and about 3,000 internships, which add up to more than 6,400 positions,” enthused APU’s CEO Parmjit Singh (pic), addressing industry players at the talent partners engagement session.

“APU is considered to be a Professional Development Institution in keeping with its vision of ensuring that our students emerge as professionals and not merely graduate with a degree. You can reasonably rest assured that the graduates of APU would be professionally guided with highly competency-based courses,” Parmjit added.

Elaborating on the success factors of such a physical event since the pandemic, Prof Dr Ho Chin Kuan, APU’s Vice-Chancellor opined, “We set out to ensure that both stakeholders – employers as well as students – fully enjoyed the best possible experience and hospitality on campus.”

In conjunction with the mega career fair, APU also launched its “Exclusive Partner Engagement Programme” which is a unique model of collaboration where the university will assist employers in the key areas of Talent Acquisition, Upskilling and Retention.

“I think APU has done a better job compared to many others in preparing their students or young professionals to come into the workforce,” stated Sanjay Sidhu, Executive Director, BDO Governance Advisory Sdn Bhd.

BDO, the 5th largest accounting firm in the world, formalised its partnership with APU under the engagement programme with Sanjay expressing the hope that this will lead to them recruiting more APU graduates.

“Right now, we are looking to hire people for the forensic unit, IT, and cybersecurity. Apart from academic performance, what I am looking for from job seekers is the attitude, enthusiasm, and people who can appreciate the hurdles and come back to me with alternate approaches,” he said.

“I think today’s response in the career fair is a clear testimony to what APU students stand for and what you can see from them, the drive,” said Vishnu Varthan, Hilti Asia IT Services.

“I have submitted my resume at the booths of Deloitte, Swift, Philip Capital, Schlumberger, and Finiro Capital Management because the jobs offered by these companies are relevant to my degree in International Business Management,” said Kizuna Kuramoto, a student from Japan.

“I am interested in and looking for a cybersecurity job because it is my major, and today is my first step toward finding the job I want the most, conveniently at the campus,” said Snirnov Matrey from Khazastan.

Summarising the outcome of APU Career Fair 2022, Ho shared, “It was very heartwarming to see many of our amazing alumni coming back to campus representing their companies to recruit our current graduates and students. We are delighted with the enthusiastic response received from employers and their positive feedback on the quality of candidates they met.”

Such events will resume at a regular basis, just as before the pandemic, he said.

Brands that participated at the event included AirAsia, Maybank, Alliance Bank, Arvato Systems, Bank Islam, Bank Negara Malaysia, BDO, CIMB Bank, Coca-Cola, DHL, DKSH, Epson, Fusionex, Great Eastern, Habib Group, Hilti IT Services, Hong Leong Bank, Micron Memory, POS Malaysia, Public Bank, PwC, Schlumberger, Sun Life Malaysia, Tata Consultancy Services, Maxis, Deloitte, KPMG, Standard Chartered Bank and many more.

Their presence reaffirmed APU’s consistently strong employability record over the years, including achieving 100% employability in the Tracer Study conducted by the Ministry of Higher Education.