PENANG: With companies facing challenges in ensuring sustainable talent pipelines, the maker of two-way radios and communications equipment Motorola Solutions Malaysia believes in nurturing talent to drive innovation and offers to engage with educators to ensure graduates’ relevance to the marketplace.

Working with TalentCorp Malaysia, Motorola Solutions has provided local undergraduates internship opportunities to gain experience and exposure to best practices in the electrical engineering field.

Dr Hari Naryanan, managing director of Motorola Solutions, said it is the company’s desire to groom more local talent and ensuring the pipeline of engineering talent for the future.

“In four years’ time I’d like to see [more] graduates with the relevant knowledge coming into the industry,” he said.

On the rate of rising number of unemployed youth in Malaysia, Hari said while this is often said, he still finds it hard to hire the right candidates.

“What we need, we don’t have enough. Someone should take a look at the demography of all unemployed graduates and tell us which discipline they are unemployed in because we are struggling to hire talents,” he told The Edge Financial Daily, adding that the government should offer scholarships based on industry needs

“I think the ministry of higher education is generally doing a pretty good job at bringing in industry relevance. I think it should do a better job in terms of driving Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education at primary and secondary levels. It’s a pipeline issue. If you don’t start early, forget it,” he said.

Asked whether the private sector could do more to engage with the government to address this issue, Hari said: “We are putting up our hands, we can help. My view is that I don’t think we should continue to complain about it, we should help. We have to put the investment in the long view.”

Motorola Solutions celebrated 40 years of innovation this month, reflecting four decades of continuous innovation at its global research and development (R&D) centre based in Penang.

The centre in Penang is the largest R&D centre for Motorola Solutions in the world. It has thus far groomed 1,000 highly skilled engineers to develop next-generation mission critical communication devices and public safety solutions for customers worldwide.

“Malaysia is a strategic R&D site for Motorola Solutions. We are proud to have applied local skills and capabilities over the past 40 years to drive R&D and innovation all over the world,” said Hari.

“This has enabled Penang to become the largest developer of devices for Motorola Solutions globally, and to become the company’s largest investment in R&D outside of North America.”

Since its establishment, Motorola Solutions has invested over US$1 billion (RM4.42 billion) in Malaysia.