KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 24): IPG Mediabrands Malaysia, a subsidiary of the New York-listed Interpublic Group, announced yesterday the launch of its latest corporate social responsibility effort called Project Illuminate to help empower and educate underprivileged communities.

Project Illuminate comprises training modules leveraging from IPG Mediabrands' core competencies spanning media, creative innovation, digital, technology and mobile, to provide disadvantaged sectors of the community with additional skills through knowledge transfer by voluntary talents within IPG Mediabrands.

"We undertook this initiative as it acts as a very sustainable bridge towards our giving, and we are able to utilise our in-house skills and expertise to create relevant and engaging educational modules," said Bala Pomaleh, chief executive officer of IPG Mediabrands, in a statement today.

"It is heartening to see the roll-out by our very own talents, who volunteer their time to deliver it across the communities in need," he said.

The initiative kicked start with an eight-part digital training module on using social media for business, developed in collaboration with the company's social media and content-marketing agency, Society. The module was delivered to students at the YWCA Kuala Lumpur's Vocational Training Opportunity Centre (VTOC), which was established in 1998 to provide vocational skills training for young women and girls from economically disadvantaged sectors of the community.

Pomaleh said IPG Mediabrands viewed the social media for business module as a useful add-on to the already vital vocational training being provided by VTOC for the young women.

"Through digital skills and media, we looked to empower the trainees to become more self-supporting, giving them the ability to have a digital lens on how they would view their future towards developing income generating businesses," he added.

VTOC chairperson June Yeoh said the training center is aimed at providing a holistic education for young women; hence, the digital training module is a valuable complement to the skills training they have gone through so far.

"Apart from integral course related subjects, we expose the trainees to a wide variety of courses such as leadership training, and social issues and awareness programmes. We appreciate this digital training offered by IPG Mediabrands, as it serves to make their education more relevant with 21st century application, so they may further contribute towards nation building," she said.