All systems go for Petronas Education Sponsorship Programme
KUCHING: Fluctuating oil prices, a volatile world economy, and a global pandemic did not stop national energy corporation Petronas from continuing to invest in education and human capital development through its Petronas Education Sponsorship Programme (PESP).
Petronas continues to uphold its contributions to sustainable development by improving access to quality education, promoting learning and development activities as well as enabling deserving recipients to realise their career aspirations.
Through PESP, Petronas continues to invest in developing and enriching its pool of potential talents through the provision of sponsorship to deserving students to study in top Malaysian and foreign universities for them to realise their full potential and career aspirations.
According to its Vice President of Group Human Resource Management Farehana Hanapiah, the programme has been running continuously since 1975, awarding education sponsorship to deserving students.
To date, Petronas has awarded education sponsorships to approximately 37,000 deserving students with high academic calibre and leadership capability, with total investments of more than RM3.3 billion.
“This programme is in line with Petronas’ strategic pillars to continue to invest in developing and enriching its pool of talents,” said Farehana.
“Not only are we doing this because we need a continuous pipeline of talents to come into the organisation but we look at it as also as a way to further enrich the oil and gas as well as energy industry in general.
“Whether the economy is up or down, whether in good or hard times we have never questioned our investment in the people,” she told the media in an online interview.
Farehana revealed that earlier this year, with all the global developments, the company’s leadership team came together to look at ways to sustain cash flows.
“We are fully committed to continue developing human capital, but the way that we it would have to be different.
“We have to do it in the most cost-efficient way without impacting quality, especially in the selection criteria,” she said.
According to Farehana, the moment the government had announced the Movement Control Order (MCO) in March 2020, the whole organisation adopted a work-from-home approach except for those personnel in essential services.
She added that with a very good digital platform, the situation had not affected the overall productivity.
“The same challenge was put to the Education Unit to look at ways in which we can still continue to do our selection, and they came up with interesting and innovative ways.
The recent MCO due to Covid-19 had also impacted the selection process for PESP candidates. Farehana said, “Previously, we would have physical interviews, where the candidates were required to go to identified centres across Malaysia, and sit for a series of assessments. In view of the MCO, the entire selection process was done online.”
Farehana shared that initially there were concerns about candidates who might not have online access to complete the PESP assessment, but the Company found that most were able to take part in the selection process.
“What we found was that even when we went into this new way of doing things, we did not compromise on the quality of selection.
“We found that a lot more people attended, with a higher percentage of turnout at 97 per cent. Typically, we had about 80 per cent turnout,” she said.
Farehana explained that besides selecting the best universities for these deserving students to enrol in, there are also specific leadership programmes for them.
“Throughout the whole tenure of being a Petronas scholar, there are vast numbers of leadership programmes for them to attend.
“At the end of the day, we will have well-rounded talents whether they join Petronas or become part of the bigger industry. We want to make sure they are developed in a wholesome manner,” she said.
Through PESP, students will be sponsored from their foundational studies up to their first degree in disciplines related to the oil and gas, as well as energy in line with business demand.
Petronas has also introduced education sponsorship for nonconventional disciplines such as psychology and sociology.
Farehana said, “Petronas also continues to review business requirements and the disciplines needed for the future.
“We look at which universities offer the best programmes for the disciplines and help the students through the foundation works (of getting in).”
Farehana stressed that everything Petronas is doing is centred on sustainability development.
“It was important then, and we realise now that the rest of the world is catching up on that. We are looking at education as one basis.
“We are always putting our focus on human capital and this commitment will continue,” she reiterated.
This year, Petronas is awarding education sponsorship to 370 outstanding Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) achievers under the PESP, after receiving more than 10,000 sponsorship applications nationwide.
Apart from the standard prerequisite of having achieved excellent SPM results and active engagement in cocurricular activities, each candidate had to go through a rigorous selection process focusing on the assessment of leadership qualities and the ability to work in a team.
The selected students are set to further their tertiary education at Universiti Teknologi Petronas as well as other top local and top foreign universities in Australia, Canada, China, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Petronas will provide financial support from foundational studies up to their first degree in various disciplines such as Accounting, Actuarial Science, Applied Chemistry, Computer Science, Chemical Engineering, Economics, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Geology and Geophysics, Law, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum Science, Psychology, Sociology, Software Engineering, and Statistics.
To learn more about PESP, log in to https:// educationsponsorship. petronas.com.my/