Portugal, Lisbon – From the 1^st of July until the 5^th of July  a team of participants from  Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and University Malaya (UM) attended a Talent Management Training workshop in Lisbon, Portugal. The training was supported by the Erasmus Grant under a project titled, “Promoting Modern Talent Management Practices in Asian Higher Education Institutions”. The project was led by coordinators; Dr Eva Gallardo and Dr Vicénc Fernandez from Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya. Other participating Asian teams were from Beijing Jiaotong University, Beihang University, Hebei University and Tongji Unievrsity, China. The European partners of the project were from Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Portugal, KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden and Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, France. UTM team was represented by Prof Ir Dr Zainuddin Manan, UTM Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academic & International, Puan Azizah Ismail, Deputy Registrar of UTM Registrar Office, Assoc. Prof Ir Dr Sharifah Hafizah Syed Ariffin of UTMLead, UTM, and Assoc Prof Dr Mohd Ismid of UTM International.

The training workshop has taken place in Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade de Lisboa. Day 1 started with presentation of Talent Management in Academia by a prominent researcher in talent management practices, Dr Marian Thunnissen, a professor at school of HRM and Phychology at Fontys University of Applied Science and Utrecht University, Netherlands. She elaborated on “What is Talent and Talent management”. Day 2 workshop was more on group discussions on “External and Internal Strengths in Human Resource Management (HRM)/Talent Management in the Higher Education Institution (HEI) in Malaysia and China”, and the “Definition of Talent in Asian HEI”. Each Asian team had to present the outcome of the discussion in a mind map form to the other participants. Day 3 workshop witnessed participants working together using a different approach to  construct the “Definition of the Meaning of Talent in Asian HEIs” where they used common and shared model using LEGOs building blocks to achieve their goal.  The final version of the shared LEGO models showed excellent talents being defined in four different tracks which were research, managers, teachers and professional practices. Day 4 activities included presentation from IST on their practices on attracting international student talent and institutional strategies for retaining and recruiting talent. On the last day of training, the coordinators exhibited the outcome of the one week workshop and the next task of the project. The workshop has provided many new knowledge and approaches of other HEI practices on talent management. The four tracks pre-definition of talent unfolded in the workshop had given UTM participating team members a different and bigger view on how to further nurture and develop UTM talents in a more strategic manner.