King of Fruits – Season II





The group looked at each other, counted all who were there, and off they went! It was 5PM.

It was a Wednesday evening, dated 28th November 2012, when a little group of seven BIDP students made their way up to Balik Pulau for yummy durians. They were not alone in that trip – a group of Dream Catcher Consulting (DCC) staff also made the trip up with them.

After a rather exciting and adventurous time of getting lost and stuck in the after-work-hour traffic jams, the group managed to find their way to the destination ..with the encouragement of delicious durians ahead to reward their efforts and determination! Well, of course there was the GPS and numerous phone calls…

Indeed, stepping out of the car, there was their reward. The scent that drifted along with the breeze confirmed it. It was 6.50PM.

Charge!!!!

Okay, it wasn’t that dramatic. But they did walk briskly and fast enough to the feast of fruits that was laid out .. the many types of durians of the best grades, with mangosteens and rambutans as ‘side dishes’. DCC staff were already happily helping themselves to their umpteenth rounds, so there was no moment of hesitation to join in!

After about……….. hours of finger-licking, thumb-sucking great feasting, it was getting late and they finally teared themselves away from the table and packed up the rest of the goodies to take home. It was to be continued!

After saying the Goodbyes and Good Nights, they hopped into their respective rides and sayonara orchard, till next year!  
 
The happy faces indulging in durian goodness
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
by Melanie Ann (BIDP class monitor)

Selamat Berbuka Puasa

"Selamat Berbuka Puasa"



It was a colourful evening for BIDP participants.. Everyone looks pretty and handsome in traditional dress for the Berbuka Puasa event in CMR Chinese Muslim Restaurant at Bayan Baru.

I guess the food has becoming secondary as the get together and recording the moments has becoming the main event of the evening. Everybody chats, laughs and smiles and continuously taking photos, with many styles and locations. The bonds within the participants can be seen and felt. All behaved as brothers and sisters and appear to be very close to each others. Everyone will surely missed these when they are back to their organisations to starts their BIDP projects in Phase 2 of the program just right after the graduation day on 14th August 2012.


Till we meet again in the Phase 2, 24 days Specialised Training ...have a good break..


The end is near..but its just the begining

Time flies...the four months Certification training is almost ends..its about time to look back and reflects what we have learnt during this period. At this juncture all participants already build a strong bond and everyone are now 'brothers' and 'sisters' to each other.
A good quite moment with yourself could brings in smiles, frown and laughter at the same time. We laugh at our self, our colleague and at times at our instructors..we also may be cursing for a failed sample preps or slow Wifi..

So are we better than before? how do you know that? why its so? are we wasting our time (and also government money)? Is this the right investment?

We seriously need to do this evaluation to see what we are worth for?

While the certification training is ending soon,  it's actually just the beginning of the new chapter in participants life.  New job, new project, new boss and more new friends.
In Agilent-BIDP one would be measured based on 4 areas;
  1. Operational goals : This is performance measure against the task/ project assigned to participants. Are tasks completed timely? per the set goals and with intended results? 
  2. Technical Skills: How participant performs in their job upon returning to the host companies? Given the extra training acquired from the program we expect all participants would be better equipped and perform better and more efficient as compared to another new hire whom came in straight to the job. This skills would be critical for the company future growth and expansion
  3. Personal development skills (Soft skills and leadership):Participant will be evaluated on their selected soft skills/leadership traits that will enables them to be an efficient and effective leader of contributors within the organisation.
  4. Competency: Competency is defined as a state or quality of being able or fit for the the job. It's a combination of Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge  (ASK)that are coachable, observable, measurable and critical to individual's and / or organisation's performance.  The host company Supervisor will need to report out participant's competency based on below guideline as well company internal assessment tools.

Level  1
Novice, Able to perform with close/full supervision
Level  2
Able to perform  with frequent supervision
Level  3
Able to perform  with occasional supervision
Level  4
Able to perform  without supervision: able to coach Level 1-3
Level  5
Expert, work independently and able to coach Level 1-4


At the end of the day everyone need to prepare themselves for the job/task at their organisation. The success of the company are largely dependent on the talents they have. Company invested their time and money to train, coach and develop their employees, while employee should reciprocate with their commitment and dedication to optimised their learning to gain as much knowledge and skills to ensure a win-win 'partnersip' . Successful employee = successful company. It works both ways,as its interdependent to each others.

The Program Office is now working out the logistic for the graduation day and certificate presentation. We look forward for the day. We will keep you posted.

At mean time hope not to late to wish our Muslim participants Selamat Berpuasa.

Why hands-on?


One of the special features of BIDP training is the hands-on lab component.

Trainees get a chance to experience how to operate in an effective manner in a lab environment. The planning of events, correct synchronising of sample preparation time with equipment warm up time, developing testing methods under time pressure, troubleshooting equipment performance while doing a critical run and many many more. There will always be a tutor at hand to help but the trainees have to "lead" the development of their experiments, no one to give instructions (or spoon-feeding). The training is designed to provide enough "challenge" to ensure independence when working in their own labs later.

 Are they "experts" by the end of the training? No, we cannot create "experts" in weeks and months.

 Lab skill is a marriage of art and science, perfected through practice and experience all your life. What BIDP provides is an acceleration to some key lab skills. The tips and tricks that you learn here will serve you well whichever lab you embark your career on.

It is the distillation of many decades of combined experience of our trainers passed on to you in the shortest possible time.

by Dr Leong Chuei Wuei

Teambuilding 19th May'12

The morning pick up appear to be smooth, but a big surprise awaits at the bottom of the hill to the team building location...things happen when you don't really expecting it...everyone was shock to know that the bus will only ferry the participants up to Kek Lok Si temple parking area..the rest they have to walk!....it was a hard walk-up-hill... . After the breakfast participants took another short walk to the team building venue. The event started almost an hour late.
None the less participant continue the program per plan.

The team was split into two teams: They name themselves 'Osem' and 'Fantastic'.
Selected activities are:
  1. PBA bridge crossing: 3 wire cables mounted across 2 concrete block about 10 ft apart, functioning as a mini bridge. A set of 3 planks included as platform to stand. All participants must cross without falling off or touching the cable
  2. Swinging tyres: A string of 8 tires hung up on wire cables secured between two trees. All members need to cross from one end to another.
  3. Spider web : A  big spiderweb lookalike strung up between two metal post. The target is to put every member through the Spiderweb without any contact with the web.
  4. Wild Woosey buddy : A series of taut wire cable connected between tree to metal post about 16 inches from ground. Participants need to move as one unit of human chain and complete the triangle formation
In general, these activities are testing participants' planning skills, strategy formation, teamwork, motivation and team spirit. There are not a single step in the activities that can be perform individually. The weakest link/member in the team depict the strength of the team. Helping this weakest link are usually becoming the main task of the team.  It could be a frustrating and demoralising tasks at times, but once the challenges are overcome it was a very fulfilling and satisfying results for everyone and the bond getting stronger and better.

At the end of the event everyone enjoy and happy...

Till the next team building event....









Teambuilding 19th May 2012

The fun part of BIDP is on the way. All BIDP participants will be able to show their talent and agility in the teambuilding session at Air Itam Teambuilding Center (http://www.a1tc.com.my/)
Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Event will starts at 7.45am (with  pick up from Ipharm) and ends at about 3pm (departing from AITC).. transportation (coach bus) will be provided.

Get ready for a fun day guys ..!..


Note: As usual your contact persons: Afny, Nurul and Melanie.

BIDP Kick off -16th April 2012


On 16th April 2012 Agilent BIDP officially kicked off with participants from various organisations reporting to the training venue at Institute Pharmaceuticals and Nutraceuticals of Malaysia (IPHARM) in Penang. (List of participants)
Participants going through the registration process before taken for light breakfast. A formal orientation process took place in the training room in which participants were briefed with Agilent BIDP background, it's objectives, including ground rules, security and program expectations. An ice-breaker activities was also introduced as the initial 'get-to-know' process as well as conveying the importance of 'communication' process at work and during the certification training period.
Participants then was taken for a site tour within IPHARM facilities for familiarisation and ease of logistic movement.

This kick-off session marked the start of Phase I of Agilent BIDP; a 4 months class room Industry Certification in Biochemical Instrumentation and Lab Practices. The certifiaction consist of:
  • Concept - theory and hands-on
  • Usage of relevant tools
  • Domain and design knowledge
  • Competency evaluation
  • Case study
  • Assessment
Some of photos taken from the Orientation session and ice-breaker activities;
Mr Tay Eng Su - Director of Quality, Agilent Technologies Malaysia
Mr Tay Eng Su taking questions from participants


The Winner for the tallest structure (Orange Team)


The Blue Team
The Yellow team
Yellow team
Blue Team
Pink team
The Pink Team



The Green Team

The Geen team

Agilent BIDP Timeline

Milestones                                                                  Deadline
Recruitment process                                            30th March 2012
Formal offer and acceptance to program            13th April 2012
Registration and Orientation                               16th April 2012
Certification class starts                                      17th April 2012
Official Kick-Off (tentative)                                   27th April 2012
Certification class ends                                       14th August 2012
Returning to host companies for project             15th August 2012