Within the Islamic finance realm, prospective cases studies can include amongst others the application of Shariah Standards by Islamic banks and its effects on product structuring and pricing strategy, legal aspects, risk management, oversight function and governance process of the banks. For the takaful sector, case studies on microtakaful for example can lead to the development of protection schemes that can be offered at affordable prices. I trust the academia has enough resources to produce such case studies and generate new research findings and breakthroughs, given the knowledge and expertise of their academic faculties. In essence, we need to be more exploratory and brave to rigorously investigate or examine real life situations and complex scenarios and benefit from hindsight and learnt lessons that can give new solutions for future growth. The initiative to develop the Educator's Manual is in itself a good starting point to encourage universities to move towards experiential learning. Students will be exposed to Shariah and operational requirements covering areas such as product structuring, legal, accounting as well  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  as risk management. The transparent nature of the standards would enable students to critique and form their own views and conclusions. It is a leap forward to change the paradigm on the theoretical and operational aspects of Shariah applications. This initiative is certainly a gamechanger for our Islamic finance education programme.

This initiative is also an important milestone in terms of academia-industry cooperation in equipping our students with industry relevant and contemporary application of Shariah contracts in Islamic financial products and services. Given the new content on the subject matter, a pre-condition to successfully implement the learning guide is to train and expose lecturers to multiple disciplines of subject matters. Particularly, as the applications of the Shariah and operational requirements cover various fields that include legal, accounting, risk management and information technology. Developmental training is a critical component as it enables the imparting of knowledge effectively. Strategising talent deployment While it is acknowledged that the role of learning institutions is essential to develop talent with higher skill sets, the industry also has an important role to ensure effective deployment of graduates as they enter the workforce. The number of graduates is indeed increasing at a rapid rate. The general feedback of Shariah graduates however is the lack of opportunities for employment. But the reality is that the industry still grapples with shortage of the right talent that can lead and energise innovation. A solution is to reconcile the expectation gaps of the industry and graduates. Talent enrichment program is one area where we can pursue to bring out the best of student talent. Enrichment programmes in areas beyond Shariah, such as leadership training at the early stage of recruitment would strengthen the confidence of Shariah students and provide the required exposure for them to understand and appreciate the intricacies of business environment.