By Dr TARCISIUS CHIN 

This is the second part of the article on leadership programmes
in Malaysia. The first part was published on April 3, 2005.

SOME of the few leadership programmes available for the young
are The Star's BRATs, New Straits Times' Quake, Rotary's RYLA
and MIM's TRYLA. The National Service is more of a boot camp,
with the objective being more to promote national unity than
leadership.

TRYLA in particular, is a tested programme for young executives
and professionals aged 21 to 35 years. It has been conducted by
the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM) for over 10 years.

It is the acronym for Tun Razak Youth Leadership Awards, and
applications are invited from eligible Malaysians who must be
recommended and supported by their employers. Successful
candidates will be invited to participate in a nine-day high
involvement residential experience to learn how to be better
leaders.

Named after the second Prime Minister, TRYLA has the full
support of the family of Tun Razak, including Deputy Prime
Minister Datuk Seri Najib, who normally makes it a point to meet
and address participants. Through generous funding from the
Konrad Adenauer Foundation, participants do not have to pay
fees. What is expected in return is for them to contribute more
effectively and responsibly to their organisations and to the
community.

There is a difference between hard qualification and soft
skills. An academic qualification certifies that its holder has
acquired a specific body of knowledge, while a professional
qualification attests to a prescribed level of technical
competency.

The job market will be influenced by the needs of industry.
Currently, the need is particularly felt in the engineering,
technical and financial fields and they do attract premium
salaries.

However, knowledge and competencies requirement will be greatly
influenced by change and new developments.

In the information technology field, for example, a graduate who
does not keep updated on new processes will be rendered obsolete
within a few years, and will therefore be less competitive and
useful to his or her employer.

That is why continuing education has to be a prerequisite to
sustaining our competitive edge. Unfortunately, most Malaysian
graduates feel that graduation is the end of education. Worse
still, most Malaysians do not even read enough!

Soft skills on the other hand tend to last. They are the
universals as they relate to principles of conduct and values of
behaviour. They cannot be taught but they can be learned.

And learning has to be experiential, drawing not on our
intellect but on our emotional and spiritual intelligences.

This means lots of exercises, fieldwork and direct participation
and involvement in grappling with issues rather than in dealing
with tasks. You can listen to all the lectures on good
communication, but unless you are also required to practise and
be consciously assessed as to how you have performed, you will
not likely be a good communicator.

Likewise, promoting honesty and integrity is not a matter of
classroom discussion as much as pursuing processes and
experiences that will test our honesty and our ability to
respond to different situations.

With so much rhetoric on the importance of human capital, there
is the need to shift from the current bias for hardware
competency to a concern for software development.

Organisations like Rotary and the Malaysian Institute of
Management have been taking the initiative to develop the full
person with a focus on soft skills, in particular leadership in
the belief that it is the quality of our leaders that will
ultimately make the difference in the lives of the community.

Dr Tarcisius Chin is a Fellow of the Malaysian Institute of
Management. The TRYLA 2005 programme is scheduled for May 12 -
May 20, 2005. Applications are now open for eligible young
Malaysians. For more information or to apply, contact MIM
Customer Service at Tel: 03-2165 4611, e-mail enquiries@mim.edu
or visit www.mim.edu