PHD Malaysia grooms students to join media agencies

PHD Malaysia has inked a deal with Taylor’s University’s School of Communication to jointly launch “The Game Change Academy”.The collaboration between the global media network and an institution of higher education was developed to provide practical industry training to communication students in order to prepare them for careers in the media and marketing industry.The Game Change Academy will be responsible for spotting, identifying and developing future game-changers in media. At the core of the programme are training modules developed and delivered by media practitioners in collaboration with PHD, on a voluntary basis. This programme is specifically for students of the Bachelor of Mass Communication programs majoring in Advertising, Public Relations and Event Management.The Academy will also launch a student-managed agency within Taylor’s University, named proPassion Communications. The student agency will provide industry simulation that will allow students to access PHD’s proprietary planning tools and understudy PHD’s senior professionals. It will act as a talent incubator to bridge the faculty with real world practices, thus enabling the students to be future-ready for the industry.“The Game Change Academy will provide industry linkages to students of Taylor’s Bachelor of Mass Communication, and as the students go through their degree program, our industry will have a pool of talent who will be able to immediately start practicing in the industry,” Josephine Tan, dean of School of Communication said.Jimmy Lim (pictured), general manager of PHD Malaysia, said: “Our industry is facing a severe talent crunch and we cannot continue to take the same approach over and over again. The talent supply is finite and the industry at large is not doing itself any favor with archaic talent development programs. Often fresh graduates joining the industry are not fully connected with what the media profession entails and prefer to explore before deciding that media is not really their career choice. ”Lim added that The Game Change Academy, will allow students to understand the media industry over the course of their degree program."By starting early while they are in university, they will be able to assess early whether a media career is truly their calling," Lim said.