Exploring endless possibilities: Visitors at the Star Education Fair 2023 at the Setia SPICE Convention Centre in Penang. — CHAN BOON KAI/The Star
GEORGE TOWN: School leavers, especially those who recently obtained their SPM 2022 results, formed the bulk of the crowd at the Star Education Fair 2023 at the Setia SPICE Convention Centre in Bayan Baru.
With 100 education booths offering an array of products, children and parents can select the most suitable structured products at the three-day fair, which ends today.
INTI International College Penang, offers new products with structured internship programmes.
“Top on the list are our Computer Science and Business Management programmes, twinning with Australia and United Kingdom,” said INTI International College Penang chief executive Hemalatha Murugiah.
“Another programme which is a growing field here is the Bachelor of Psychology we are offering with an American University, which is a four-year degree programme,” she said.
Hemalatha said the college offers 20 new short-term micro credential courses.
“We are also in the process of offering artificial intelligence (AI) courses, and since there has been a shift in the SPM examination, the June to August intake will see at least about 600 students enrolling.“We are a pioneer in learning management system which puts us apart compared to other education centres,” she added.
Peninsula Higher Education group president Prof Ian Pashby said the most popular course sought by students were logistics management and computer science.
“The campus at the Batu Kawan Industrial Park offers United Kingdom bachelors degrees where the students are chosen for practical training in a logistics company associated with the college to gauge the employability of the student.
“The computer science programme will add cybersecurity and later artificial intelligence which is essential today,” said Pashby.
APU (Asia Pacific University) is looking at mainly producing high-quality students with technology-related talents.
“When we say technology, the first thing that comes to the mind is computer science, but it is more than that because we are talking about innovating any industry for that matter,” said APU student services executive Cynthia Chuo.
“For example, many are saying that accounting is a dying field, but this is not the case as we need accounting talents who can operate accounting tools.”
She said the mission was to produce high-quality graduates who were technology driven and sought after.
“This is the kind of students we will be looking into during the student recruitment drive,” she added.
Han Chiang University College of Communication vice-chancellor Dr James Beh said the college’s expertise was in Mass Communication but that it had evolved with the industry with the advent of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and the latest trend, which is TikTok.
“We are the only college that starts at primary (level) and ends at university, something which is not common.
“Nevertheless, we are the only institution which offers Chinese Studies from diploma to PhD, although most know us as the Mass Comm university where we have 400 students,” he said.
