Page 13 - Berita Sunway - Issue 71

Features

2 Democratising

education for all

ith zero tuition fees required of
students, 42KL aims to level the
W playing field of education, offering
Malaysians the opportunity to attain professional
skill sets regardless of their financial ability or
academic qualifications.
This is true to Sunway Group’s commitment
towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), as Goal Four is to
‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education
and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’.

Sunway iLabs collaborated with Sunway Education
Group and French-based École 42, to launch 42KL
in Malaysia in 2020.

Established in Paris in 2013, École 42 now has
23 partner schools globally and is the first digital
training centre that is tuition-free and open to
18-year-old students with or without academic
qualifications.

It is our mission to empower all students
in 42KL the ability to learn with
no barriers. Education should be
accessible to all students no matter their
socio-economic status or background.
By transforming the education sector
digitally, we can boost digital equity in
that everyone can have access to learning
in an easier and less expensive way than Changing the
a traditional route. 3 culture of learning

for admission online as of end-November 2020. D igital transformation in education is It is important to allow customised learning
“
Response to admissions have been encouraging
for each student to make education a personal
thus far, with more than 2,500 people signing up
more than just innovation or technology
learning journey that is productive,” he said.
– it is a matter of culture,” Sandhu said.
Of this number, 450 students have been shortlisted “At 42KL, the curriculum progress is gamified, 42KL has partnered with industry leaders such
to undergo the school’s 4-week physical bootcamp, with students gaining experience points upon each as CIMB, DHL, Standard Chartered, HSBC,
‘The Piscine’, to select the first batch of 100 students project completion, before levelling up to more Huawei, Celcom, Roland Berger, Carsome,
for the core programme. Originally slated to take difficult projects when they have gained sufficient the Selangor Information Technology and
place in November 2020, ‘The Piscine’ has been experience points,” he explained. E-Commerce Council (SITEC) and Sunway
postponed to early 2021 due to the pandemic, Group to trailblaze the inclusion of new-collar
with 42KL providing free online learning modules 42KL also leverages data by giving access to workers in their organisations.
to the participants in the meantime. students to have a clear overview of their learning
progress and how to build their portfolio upon “Finding the right digital talent is only possible
“What impressed me was the number of female graduation, empowering them to take charge of when companies’ internal processes change to
registrants in our online application, which their own education. include ‘new-collar’ workers – individuals who
currently stands at 45%. This shows that the acquire technical digital skills and soft skills
perception of coding as a male-dominated field “Through the digitalisation of the learning needed to work in technology jobs through non-
does not apply to the younger generation, and that experience, both teachers and students can traditional education paths like 42KL. This is how
we as educators should encourage for more female improve their skills with a common goal – to create the edutech space should reinvent itself,” he said.
participation in this sector,” said Sandhu. a more engaging and effective education process.
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