Industrial training report at RICAEN / Nur Syuhada Safaruddin

My internship journey at RICAEN for six months or 24 weeks, beginning on March 1, 2023 and ending August 15 2023, The Research, Industry, Community, and Alumni Network RICAEN branch, which is headed by the Deputy Rector for Research and Industrial Linkages, assists and supports all academic members with commercialization, intellectual property, publications, and grant applications. The goal of the Industry, Community, and Alumni Network is to establish new connections and solidify already-existing linkages with businesses, the community, alumni, and other universities. As for my internship journey, in this department, I was assigned to the Research Management Unit which was managed by Dr Wan Izhan Nawawi and assisted Puan Zurita Jaafar. The research management unit is responsible for coordinating and disseminating information regarding research-related activities in UiTM Perlis.
The Units Under the Research, Industry, Community, Alumni, Entrepreneurship & Network (RICAEN) is an organization that is responsible for serves and helps all faculty members in research grant applications, publications, intellectual properties, consultation services as well as commercialization, develop new linkages and strengthen existing partnerships with industry, communities, alumni and other universities.
Moreover, my duties in this department included helping to process local order payments, claims for travel and other expenses, claims for other expenses, and honorarium payments made to academic staff members who receive funding from internal, commercial, academic, national, or international sources. I am also in charge of new applications and extending the contracts of Graduate Research Assistants and Research Assistants because I am responsible for processing their salaries each month.
Furthermore, I also gained the intrinsic rewards by few of activities that have been held in RICAEN along my internship journey by contributing in some big events at RICAEN such as International Innovation, Design and Articulation (i-Idea) and Anugerah Semarak Sanjung. However, no allowance is provided for internship at RICAEN. Since this is a government organization, we are required to do our job and responsible without any payment, but each event that we contributed, we are given a certificate as a reward of being a volunteer in those event as I mentioned earlier.
Other than that, during my internship at RICAEN, I gained skills such as interpersonal skill and effective communication skill. These skills thought me to become a good staff in the future.
In addition, based on the swot analysis, four strategies are strategized such as employee training and development, website optimization, highlight unique selling points and utilize alumni network.
Last but not least, there are some recommendations suggested to overcome the weaknesses in this organization. Those are regular system maintenance, backup system, social media engagement, collaborate with faculty and researchers, use technology for communication and encourage open communication.