22 February 2013| last updated at 01:13AM
KOTA KINABALU: A PROGRAMME to introduce biotechnology to students is going into high gear, with nearly 40,000 students having been exposed to the field throughout the country.
The programme is aimed at helping produce 50,000 scientists by 2020. Established in 2001, the MyBiotech@School has been reaching out to students at tertiary institutions and secondary schools through its monthly programmes.
Its director, Prof Dr Mohd Basyaruddin Abdul Rahman, said the programme, an initiative of the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, targeted students in urban and rural areas.
"The modules include talks on career opportunities and about universities that offer related courses, as well as interactive learning activities," he said during the BioBorneo 2013 conference here on Tuesday.
About 700 secondary students from 11 schools in Sabah were involved in the two-day programme themed "Delivering the Borneo Bioeconomy Innovation".
Among the interactive modules was a board game similar to Monopoly but instead of accumulating wealth, they learned about entrepreneurship and intellectual property.
Students were also taught how to apply basic sciences in daily life.
"We usually get local biotechnology post-graduates to be programme facilitators as they have vast hands-on experience. This way students will be able to get the best answers to their questions," he added.
Meanwhile the ministry's undersecretary, Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Jamil Maah, said graduates with science-related degrees should learn to adapt to the job market to get jobs.
"There are broad job prospects as candidates can go into many fields, such as healthcare, agriculture and industry. Society should change its mindset that the only good professions are in medicine, engineering or law," he said, adding that parents should be supportive of their children if they were interested in biotechnology.
The Biotechnology Transformation Programme, under the Economic Transformation Programme, is targeting investments amounting to RM10 billion and the creation of 16,300 jobs.
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