KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) has awarded sponsorships to 301 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2020 high achievers to pursue their tertiary education at Universiti Teknologi Petronas and other leading local and foreign universities.
More than RM120 million has been allocated for the sponsorship this year under the Petronas Education Sponsorship Programme (PESP).
The sponsorship has also been extended to include disciplines such as Biochemistry, Business Administration (Marketing & Trading) and Environmental Science to support Petronas’ cleaner energy and sustainability agenda.
Petronas senior vice president of Group Human Resource Management, Farehana Hanapiah, said despite the uncertainties brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, Petronas remained steadfast in investing in education and human capital development to ensure a sustainable pipeline of capable leaders and competent workforce.
“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,” she said.
This year’s PESP recipients were selected from over 10,000 applicants across Malaysia.
Adhering to the Covid-19 movement restrictions, Petronas fully 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, 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 only be bound by the academic syllabus in the classroom.
“To enter the workforce, we expect them to be agile and adaptable, especially to challenges such as what we are currently going through,” said Farehana.
Since 1975, more than 37,000 Malaysians have benefited from 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.
