As an effort to enhance the students’ learning experience, a group of final year students from the Operation Management degree, Faculty of Business and Management (FBM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) was given the task of organizing a dual-mode dialogue on 15th June 2022 as part of the requirement for their project management course. The theme for this online and physical dialogue entitled “Sustainability in Project Management: Global and Local Perspectives”.

It was attended by 53 Operation Management’s students from FBM and 200 students from Medan Area University, Indonesia. This dialogue encompassed academic and industry views from various institutions in Malaysia and Indonesia. Among the speakers were Puan Huslina Hosnih from Bank Rakyat Malaysia, Cik Syafiqah Aifaa Ahmad from STMicroelectronics Sdn Bhd Malaysia, Dr. Ahmad Rafiki from Medan Area University, Indonesia and Ms. Diah Setiawaty, from Viamo, Indonesia.

Other than gaining the knowledge shared by the speakers during the dialogue session, the organizing team were able to showcase their knowledge and skills in managing a real project that crossed the local and international boundaries. As the project management life cycle begin with initiating, planning, implementing, monitoring and control, and closing, the organizing team need to closely supervise the project to ensure it was on schedule, within the project scope and budget. This dialogue’s project initiation, planning, implementation and closing was officially kicked off in April, 2022 and completed on 4th of July.

With such an exposure and hands-on experience in managing a real project, the students also learned to overcome the challenges faced throughout the planning and implementation process. These obstacles had taught them to anticipate the unexpected and be better prepared with effective project risk mitigation strategy, problem solving, decision making, negotiating with the stakeholders, and work in team. It tested their ability to be agile as well as tested their project management knowledge and competency which cross-cutting their capabilities of both hard skills and soft skills in facing real project implementation.

This project has successfully integrated local and international participants and presenters as well as achieve the visibility of this program globally and portray the students’ ability in managing such project.