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

qPCR lab hands-on

Working hard at Balik Pulau

More photos