I-STREAM Camp: A Creative, Fun and Hands-on Community Outreach Programme for Graduate Employability

Abstract

Graduate employability has become a global concern due to the significant decline in the employment prospects of the fresh graduates. In Malaysia, there is a significant decline in the employment of the fresh graduates, where it is reported that 161,000 of new graduates are currently unemployed. In order to solve this crisis, the government introduces several policies such as the Malaysia’s 2050 National Transformation Policy (TN50), Firdaus 2050, National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) and the National Graduate Employability Blueprint 2012-2017. These policies capitalise on the collaboration among the institutions of higher learning, government agencies and private sectors to provide initiatives and programmes that are high impact, low cost and rapidly executed. As part of this initiative, we propose a creative, fun and hands-on community outreach programme for graduate employability called the I-STREAM camp. I-STREAM stands for Islamic Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. It is a comprehensive and holistic education for Muslim school-going children in rural Malaysia that integrates both modern technology and spiritual Islamic knowledge. The programme has five modules which are Introduction to TN50 and Firdaus 2050, Neurolinguistic Programming, Islamic Arts and Religious Knowledge, Islamic STEM, and the fourth Industrial Revolution. Here, the undergraduates will polish their hard skills and soft skills by working hand in hand with the industries and the government agencies. I-STREAM camp is a unique and novel community outreach programme, which will stimulate deeper learning for graduate employability as well as motivating them to strive to become icons for the Muslim ummah.