Taylor’s University collaborated with USA’s career aggregator, Talent Basket, to provide students with opportunities to gain practical experience through innovative global virtual internships and student mentorship programmes in the Hospitality and Tourism industry to prepare them for the digital workforce with a global mindset. As digital consumer adoption exceeds its 2025 forecast, various industries and its workforce are progressively transitioning into a digital-based environment to gain competitive advantage in the market. With technology being a key disruptor, the demand for candidates who are technology-savvy is also becoming prevalent across all sectors.
According to Randstad Workmonitor Research, 89% of Malaysians need to upskill to reap the benefits and opportunities that come with technological advancements and new innovations. In fact, 76% of respondents are investing to learn more about digitalization to guarantee employability. The collaboration provides Taylor’s University students from the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events (SHTE) the access to technology-focused global internships opportunities for a duration of 15 to 24 weeks through Talent Basket. This company have partner with big farms such as Forte Hotel Group, Guam Visitors Bureau, Premier Destinations Maldives and GoodPlace Sustainable Tourism Factory.
“After having excelled using technology to teach our local and international students, we are now raising the bar by making it possible for our students to intern with top companies around the globe, by leveraging on technology. Our students can now work online from any location with top companies from around the globe; quite the same way more employees in companies are beginning to do. Post pandemic, we believe this partnership with Talent Basket will enable our students to not only gain independent, self-directed working skills, but also international work experience,” said Professor Dr. Pradeep Nair, Taylor’s University Deputy Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer.
Committed to developing talents of the right calibre for the skilled workforce, Taylor’s students will also be mentored by Talent Basket coaches to ensure that the talents are achieving the expectations and project milestones of the employers, and their own learning objectives. "We are excited to bring on Taylor’s University as our academic partner into our tourism workforce ecosystem, and the strategic partnership with Taylor’s University has introduced an innovative and scalable model for global tourism for internships. It helps students to find more opportunities and gain internship credits. It also addresses the talent shortage needs of small to medium size travel companies for digital business growth by leveraging youth innovation; while doing all by minimizing the internship administration headache for the education institutions,” said Jason Lin, Founder and Chief Talent of Talent Basket.
The establishment of this partnership was made possible with the help of PATA Malaysia Taylor’s Student Chapter (PATA-MTSC) who initiated their first contact with Talent Basket at PATA Travel Mart 2019 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The Founder and Chief Talent of Talent Basket has offered several students from PATA-MTSC with the available internship opportunities on this on-demand platform. “The collaboration between Talent Basket and Taylor’s University will definitely provide a beneficial and eye-opening experience for the Taylor’s students. They get to gain global internship opportunities and digital training from Talent Basket which helps them acquire on-demand skills that the industry requires and further improve the students’ career prospects,” said Caryn Low, the former Chairperson of PATA-MTSC.
