KUALA LUMPUR: PETRONAS awarded educational sponsorship worth more than RM120 million to 301 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2020 high achievers to pursue their tertiary education at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS as well as at other leading local and foreign universities.
The allocation was made under the PETRONAS Education Sponsorship Programme (PESP).
It has been extended to include disciplines such as Biochemistry, Business Administration (Marketing & Trading) as well as Environmental Science to support PETRONAS’ cleaner energy and sustainability agenda.
According to Senior Vice President of Group Human Resource Management, Farehana Hanapiah, PETRONAS remains steadfast with its policy of investing in education and human capital development despite of the present uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“PETRONAS’ commitment to enrich our talent pool continues despite the current challenging global economic environment. It is an effort that we have been driving for the past 46 years. We believe in the power and value of education in uplifting lives and progressing the nation forward,” said Farehana in a press statement released by PETRONAS today.
The sponsorship recipients under the PESP were selected from more than 10,000 applicants from all over Malaysia.
PETRONAS adhered to the COVID-19 movement restrictions, and conducted the selection process online for the second consecutive year for all shortlisted candidates, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and state authorities.
Apart from academic achievement, PESP also emphasises on differentiated focus as well as critical skills and mindsets among its recipients, encouraging a culture that enables agility and innovation to prepare them for a fast-changing work landscape.
“We have tailored a number of development programmes for our students while they are in university as learning should not be bound by the academic syllabus in the classroom,” said Farehana.
“To enter the workforce, we expect them to be agile and adaptable, especially to challenges such as what we are currently going through.”
Since 1975, more than 37,000 Malaysians have benefitted from the PESP with over RM3.3 billion worth of education sponsorships to pursue higher education in various disciplines at leading local universities as well as top institutions in Australia, Canada, China, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
