THE STEM TALENT DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES BY PERSATUAN ALUMNI SMJK CHUNG HWA CONFUCIAN
SPEECH BY THE CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG TUAN CHOW KON YEOW FOR THE STEM TALENT DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES
BY PERSATUAN ALUMNI SMJK CHUNG HWA CONFUCIAN
9 June 2023
SMJK Chung Hwa Confucian
Good afternoon to all of you.
I am very pleased to be here for this event which concerns the very well-being of our much beloved state. It addresses the fundamental issue of our future talents in STEM, which from time to time, has been brought up for discussion and deliberation in the public sphere.
While the record-breaking Foreign Direct Investments and Direct Domestic Investments have certainly brought accolades for the State, the corresponding spiraling of demand for engineering and technical talents have also raised concerns not only for Industry players but also for the Penang State Government.
This, of course, is further exacerbated by the continuous challenge faced by teachers in raising interest in STEM-learning among our students today resulting in their declining numbers opting for the Science stream at upper secondary level.
Thus, to arrest this problem, state agencies like PENANG STEM and our STEM Centres namely Penang Science Cluster, Tech Dome Penang, Penang Math Platform and Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC) and even the Penang Digital Library have been in the forefront in providing hands-on STEM-learning for students of all ages to complement what are being taught in schools.
Ladies & Gentlemen,
At the pre-school and primary level, the focus of the PENANG STEM group has been on sparking interests and curiosity in STEM-learning but at secondary level, the twin-fold strategy will be on providing foundation-learning for secondary students to inspire more to opt for the science stream upon reaching upper secondary and subsequently into higher academic studies and careers in STEM fields.
With these objectives in mind, PENANG STEM together with Tech Dome Penang and Penang Math Platform embarked on the StepUP Initiative back in 2019 for lower secondary students to spark interest in STEM-learning.
This was followed by the pilot scheme of the TVET Talent Development initiative (also known as TECHStart) last year with the participation of Penang Skills Development Centre and Penang Science Cluster to nurture students in upper secondary through two years of technical vocational studies and to work-study options after SPM leading to future careers as technicians.
A total of 401 students from 13 selected schools joined the pilot last year and the majority have now moved on to year 2 of the programme this year. In addition, there was a fresh intake of new cohorts of 308 students from 12 schools this year.
Ladies & Gentlemen,
As for today, I am personally very pleased that Persatuan Alumni Chung Hwa Pulau Pinang has stepped forward to support this initiative by sponsoring RM50,000 for a cohort of 25 students for two years. This is a good role model for other school alumni and I encourage more to do so.
Many of you may be aware that I also launched the new STEM Future-Proofing initiative a few weeks ago which offers two years of extra-curricular foundation learning for Form 4 students interested in pursuing future academic studies and careers in Engineering or Computer Science. This is aimed at offering them greater awareness and early starts for easier transition to diploma level studies after SPM.
This STEM Future-Proofing (SFP) initiative has been approved by the State Education Department and 20 cohorts of 25 students each from selected schools will be participating in the programme. Working in collaboration with established training institutions, the programme content will cover foundation topics leading to diploma studies in either Engineering or Computer Science.
Under the Public-Private Partnership (3P) model, the programme by Penang STEM will be managed by Tech Dome Penang (for Engineering) and Penang Math Platform (for Computer Science). Funding for the programme was entirely from corporate sponsorship (in particular the Multi-National Corporations or Large Local Corporations) through a schools-adoption programme with annual sponsorship to cover training costs in schools for the 2-year duration.
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Today, I am also pleased to note that Inari Amertron Berhad has come forward to sponsor a cohort of students from SMJK Chung Hwa for the Engineering track. In fact, they will also be sponsoring another school for this same programme where student enrolment is currently being initiated.
This is truly another fine example of the 3P model and we are indeed grateful to Inari Amertron for your generous contribution to support the programme in SMJK Chung Hwa which will be managed by Tech Dome Penang with trainers from Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management & Technology (TAR UMT).
Finally, I would like to, once again, thank each and every one of you for joining us in this truly inspiring mission. I am confident that we can achieve our goal if more corporate organizations will step forward in this talent development mission which needs the support and participation of all stakeholders to help build a larger talent pool in Penang.
Thank you.