Students from four universities benefit from Prestige programme

The participants during the briefing session on Sabah

AIMING to create a broader understanding of the natural gas industry and the importance of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) aspects among university students, Malaysian Gas Association (MGA) held its annual Practical Environmental, Safety & Industrial Guidance for Student Engineers (Prestige) programme in Sabah recently.

Currently in its 11th year, the programme was held for the first time in Sabah with over 60 students and six lecturers from University Malaysia Sabah (UMS), University Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), Curtin University Malaysia and University Kuala Lumpur Institute of Chemical & Bioengineering Technology (Unikl) coming together to gain a better overview of the opportunities and challenges in the gas industry.

Speaking about the programme, MGA president Hazli Sham Kassim said “As the lead advocate of the gas industry, MGA always looks for opportunities to spread awareness on the critical role of the industry and its growing prominence in Malaysia to various stakeholders, especially the younger generation who are the future of the nation.”

“With Prestige, we are opening doors for these students to learn about the career prospects in the natural gas industry and hear directly from experienced industry leaders about their journey in this field. It is our hope that more student will consider joining the industry having gained insights on the various career paths that the growing gas industry has to offer,” he added.

The two-and-a-half-day programme comprised of several presentations and talks by key industry players from MGA corporate members such as Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), Shell Malaysia, ExxonMobil and Sabah Energy Corporation. Participants also got the chance to interact further with industry leaders during a panel discussion session, “Navigating the Future” and a networking dinner.

Sabah Energy Corporation chief executive officer Datuk Harun Ismail who gave the welcome remarks during the networking dinner said, “I would like to thank MGA for bringing the Prestige programme all the way to Sabah and making it more accessible for the students here who have a budding interest in building a future in the natural gas industry.”

As a key highlight of the programme, MGA organised technical visits to the Sabah Oil and Gas Offshore Terminal, managed by Petronas Carigali, Sabah Asset and the Kimanis Power Plant, Sabah’s largest combined cycle power plant.Besides Prestige, MGA also organises the Energy Efficiency Programme (EEP) for secondary school students. SMK (P) Air Panas, Kuala Lumpur was recently announced as the winner of the coding competition in conjunction with this year’s EEP.

At the programme, participants learnt to code programmes using an education tool, micro:bit, and SMK (P) Air Panas successfully built a working prototype which will help their school canteen to track and cater appropriate amount of meals, to avoid shortage and wastage.

For more information on the initiatives, visit www.malaysiangas.com