CYBERJAYA: The Asia Metropolitan University has made quality British education more affordable and relevant for Malaysian students through its collaboration with the Institute of Commercial Management (ICM) and Education Partnerships UK.
The industry-based British qualification programmes, offered under the university's AIMSMET Executive Education centre, focus on industrial training to complement textbook theories on business management.
"Our ICM (UK) programme is not an academic programme. It emphasises industry needs," enthused the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Asia Metropolitan University, Prof Datuk Dr Jayles Yeoh.
The certificate, diploma and advanced diploma programmes, which cater for SPM holders who are knowledge workers seeking better paper qualifications for career advancement, comprise a three-day industrial training in a week at selected Malaysia-based companies, on top of a two-day classroom lessons in the university campus here.
"We want our students to be trained and absorbed by the industries. We also support them in terms of classroom-learning and online learning," added Yeoh.
For the pioneer batch, 25 students have been selected by the university's 10 industry partners, comprising the likes of Marrybrown, Starbucks and KK Mart.
Their tuition fees, in the brackets of RM10,000 for a certificate programme, RM15,000 for a diploma programme and RM20,000 for an advanced diploma programme, are fully sponsored by the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF).
Echoing the need for Malaysia to increase the number of knowledge workers to meet the demands of the digital economy, chairman of ICM Adair Somerville Ford said the collaboration with a Malaysian university and industry players is the first of its kind in ASEAN.
"Practical training is heralding the way forward for the digital economy, and the transition to becoming a high-income status nation is only possible when the learning structure is optimised and the industry is well-prepared for the economy of the future," he opined.
The cross-border collaboration was witnessed by MATRADE senior director, Abu Bakar Koyakutty who said that all 47 MATRADE offices worldwide have been promoting Malaysia aggressively as an international education hub.
Also present to give his support to the ICM (UK) programme was advisor to Promas International Business Society, Peter Phang.
"It is highly acclaimed British education at our doorstep. A good way for our students to pursue British education locally for a quarter of the cost," said Phang. "It will benefit the country as we can transform Malaysia into an international education hub. We can attract more foreign students and bring in more foreign revenue."