JOHOR BAHRU, 19 April 2016 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) is in hard effort to transform the Batik Handcrafts subject to make it more dynamic and potential to generate income.
Besides, this transformation was also needed in order to instill the spirit of entrepreneurship in every future graduate of this university.
The Deputy Dean of the Centre of Co-Curriculum Course and Service Learning (CCSL), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd. Shafry Mohd Rahim said that it was essential to create the spirit of entrepreneurship among graduates as job opportunities are quite difficult now.
He said this after the  ‘Design, Branding & The In and Outs of a Career in Design’ session delivered by M which held at Faculty of Built Environment Convention Hall, Johor Bahru campus.
“Besides creating jobs, this transformation was also needed to enable us to sell our batik to the international level through new adaption thus generating income for the university,” he said.
The subjects of Batik Handcrafts was introduced as an optional subjectsoffered by the university since 1997 with much of its content focusing on learning and drawing the conventional batik for local use.
Dr. Shafry also said that as part of the bringing the UTM batik to the international level, UTM was also ready to appoint the Philippine born Hollywood fashion designer, Simplicio Micheal Luis Asis Herrera or M to guide UTM students who took this subject.
“M will be teaching the students the new concepts of drawing, packaging and branding of batik and also assist UTM to market its batik in the United States and overseas.
“We will be having a special occasion with consort of the Sultan of Johor, Her Royal Highness Raja Zarith Sofiah Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah on April 30th 2016 at Kg. Sungai Melayu, Gelang Patah, Johor.
In this occasion, the HRH Raja Zarith Sofiah will be drawing batik with UTM students guided by CCSL Batik Instructor, Arfinah Ariff.