Women can be automotive technicians, too

18-year-old proves girls can excel in automotive industry, too.
The Star, Aug 25, 2010

She is the typical girl next door with long hair, sweet smile and a love for pretty pastel colours and dresses. One would rank city girl Carin Chiam to be the last among her peers to venture into an industry dominated by men.

To know why she embarked on an automotive education, the 18-year-old lass tells StarSpecial about her first year at The Otomotif College (TOC).

Q: Describe your childhood in contrast with who you have become today.
A: I was a shy girl when I was young and I like to dress up and put on make-up. I have an older brother and sister but I was not influenced by my brother nor his choice of toys. There is a common misconception that cars only interest men.

Q: What made you decide to take up an automotive education? How did your parents react?
A: Both my parents are working in the automotive industry under Proton. It was my mum who encouraged me to further my studies in this field as she saw the potential in the growing car market, though I had other plans in mind.

She also told me about the job opportunities in the car industry for women and how women are making great strides in the automotive industry. The cars today are different and require more problem-solving skills and intellectual ability to fix them.

With the advancement in technology and electronics, a new generation of professionals are required. Professionals rely more on understanding and communication skills to succeed in this field. I decided to take her advice and give it a go.

Q: What attracted you to start your education at TOC?
A: My mum and I were quite impressed by the facilities offered by the college and the fact that the founder of TOC was a woman herself. Adelaine Foo devoted her time to upgrade the standards, skills and knowledge of the people working in the automotive industry.

Her goal was to promote and furnish formal and fundamental education for existing and new talents to take pride in developing a career in the growing automotive industry.

Q: How do you feel being the odd one out in your class?
A: I didn’t feel odd though I get teased a little from time to time. Still, I get along with everyone quite well. I was a little shy asking questions at first, but I gained confidence when I found that all the trainers are friendly, down-to-earth and helpful. And no, I was never stereotyped because I was different.

Q: Was the practical work demanding? Describe your greatest challenge so far.
A: No. I was more excited than afraid of anything. Having no background in handling cars of any sort, I was a little doubtful of my ability to catch up. Nevertheless, I found out later that the tasks could be handled easily and I was more confident after that.

In fact, I love practical work more than the theory classes as you get a more realistic understanding of the subject compared to just learning by listening and watching.

Because I’m slightly smaller than the boys, I am not able to do certain heavy lifting in terms of transmission, gear box and so on. But my group members help me out so I’m doing fine.

Q: Do you believe that women have a place in the automotive industry? What kind of career pathway are you looking forward to?
A: I believe that girls can do what guys can. It is often believed that women are better in communication skills and men in physical jobs. Given that, there is no reason why female automotive graduates cannot be just as successful as, or even more successful than guys out there.

There are so many career opportunities out there for women and we don’t have to limit ourselves to the level of mechanics and technicians only. We can be service advisers, diagnostics component specialists, collision estimators, parts executives and much more.

Other areas we can involve ourselves in are design, engineering, technology, marketing, sales and even research and development.

As for myself, I aspire to open my own modern workshop one day with a team of specialists dedicated towards serving the public.

The Otomotif College was established in 2005 to produced qualified and competent automotive technicians to meet the needs of one of the largest industries in the world.

TOC students can choose from certificate or diploma programmes in automotive technology or motorsport technology. The next intake is on Sept 13.

Roadshows in TOC

In these recent 2-3 weeks we have had various companies coming in to the college to conduct their roadshows, and most of it involve some sort of game using either PS2 or PS3 or a handheld device to play.

It was definitely interesting to see the students enjoying themselves with various sorts of games, and thereafter walk away with attractive prizes.

Nescafe Kickstart came over to promote its recent activity - Win Your Dream Job competition. This is a totally different competition compared to the Nescafe Kickstart contest that everyone has been so familiar about. All you have to do is tick the boxes to which is/are your dream job, and if you are selected you would be send for a 3-month internship to try out your dream job!

The set up for Nescafe Kickstart

"Win Your Dream Job" Contest

Students trying out the newly formulated Nescafe 3-in-1 Regular

In the next event, we were introduced to this cool, new and interesting handheld game device by the name of Bop It!. It's basically a device where you have 3 actions (Twist, Pull or Bop) to complete in accordance to the beat.

It was definitely not an easy task for first timer as you have to be quick in your response, and you must do the action based on the beat.

Students listening to the explanations on how to play Bop It!

Students enjoying and mastering the game

Thumbdrive was one of the top prizes given out that day

After that, in conjunction with the upcoming sequel of the movie Resident Evil, NetTechManagement, an event company, came to TOC to create awareness about the movie.

They brought along this virus-attack-zuma-alike-game call "Transcripter" for our students and staff to compete for the highest scores, where the top 3 scorers for the day would walk away with a TIMEX watch each.

The TIMEX watches were up for grabs!

Students watching how the game needs to be played

Student concentrating on winning the game

The top score for the day - a student did it!

The new sequel - Resident Evil: Afterlife - movie trailer looks awesome, so be sure to catch it when it's showing in the cinema on Sept 10!

Do you know that Malaysians consume the most fuel?

Yes, you heard it right. We, the Malaysians, has the highest fuel consumption record compared to all the other countries in the Asian Region!

According to a report by The Star newspaper, Malaysians have consumed more than 400 litres of fuel per capita per year since 2004, beating our other Asian counterparts by significant margins.

One of the reasons for such high consumption is due to lack of effective public transports system in our country, therefore we rely heavily on our cars whenever we need to head to somewhere.

But of course, our aggressive driving manners such as too much over-revving and hard-braking also contributed to the increased in fuel usage.

So perhaps we should start to be more considerate when we are driving?

Interested to know more? Read the full artifcle here.

How Much Do You Know About Hybrid Cars?

Everyone's talking about saving the environment, conserving energy or going green nowadays, due to the fact that many of our acts have caused pollution or damage to the mother earth, be it the ozone layer, the air we are breathing, or the overall environment.

Vehicles consume fuel, and this actually results in the emission of carbon, which is one of the causes for global warming to happen. To overcome this problem, many car brands have created a new generation of vehicles, title the Hybrid cars.

A hybrid car is one that combine two or more major sources of propulsion power. Hybrid cars not only help to reduce carbon emission, it is fuel effective as it consume less fuel, thus helping you to save money as well.

Here are some facts you might or might not know about hybrid cars.

1. The world’s first hybrid car was the "Mixte", which was built by Ferdinand Porsche in 1902

2. The first commercial hybrid car was Toyota Prius which was manufactured in Japan in 1997.

3. Hybrid cars are the good for the environment, when the world is facing issues like global warming. It reduces almost 90% of the smog which is released to the environment. And even the gasoline used is less when compared to the normal conventional cars.

4. Hybrid cars have lower depreciation rates when compared to other gasoline cars. So they will be in demand for many years to come.

5. Hybrid cars are not only preferred by environmentalists but also by capitalists because of the amount it saves on gasoline.

Want to know more? Read it here.

A New Beetle That Runs On Waste?

If you have not heard the news, it is true!

A MALAYSIAN-OWNED sewage treatment company in Britain has converted a VW Beetle into a car that runs on methane gas in what has been hailed as a breakthrough in the drive to encourage sustainable power.

Termed the Bio-Bug, is able to use waste flushed down the toilets of just 70 homes to power up for a year, based on an annual mileage of 16,000km.

Click here to read more!

OTTO Camp/Open Day Is Coming!

Are you a car enthusiast? Do you like to tinker with component of the car in your free time? Is it your ambition to take up a profession as an automotive technician? Do you like to part of the race team?

If you answer yes to any one or more than one of the question above, then head over to our OTTO Camp (Open Day) this Saturday to find out more information!

Don't miss this opportunity to discover the exciting journey of being an automotive/motorsport student as it is our last OTTO Camp for the year!!

Experienced trainers and helpful admissions personnels will guide you through this open day.

We shall see you on Saturday(Aug 7) at 10am-4pm then!

How to Choose A Good Automotive School?

TOC understands the importance of having a good solid foundation in automotive education before one embarks on the automotive careers. Therefore, choosing the right college to pursue automotive education is a crucial element, as the college will equip you with the relevant knowledge and hands on expertise.



Here are some key factors you should take into consideration when choosing a good automotive school:

• A good automotive program should include not only classroom lectures about automotive ideas and mechanical theories, but also ample alternative to work on automobiles and observe your skills


• The college you attend must also have an ample supply of updated equipment. A faculty with a scarcity of the correct tools will make it difficult so that you can get sufficient practice, and old or broken equipment could be a safety hazard.


• Accreditation can be an necessary indicator of the standard of education a college can provide. Accreditation verifies that a college meets a predetermined set of standards.

(info courtesy of Education & Degrees)

These are just some criterias, to read more, please click here.

Top Ten Fastest Cars In The World

For all car enthusiasts out there, I'm sure all of you are very familiar with different types and bramds of cars. But do you know which brand of car holds the fastest record?

Look at the video below, showing the world's top ten fastest car for 2009/2010 !

Now you know which car is the fastest!! :)