Scholars get aid for their studies
PETRONAS awarded scholarships to 210 deserving students to pursue their tertiary education in various disciplines at international and local universities under the Petronas Education Sponsorship Programme (PESP).
The scholarships are part of a total of 330 scholarships offered by Petronas this year, with a total value of about RM134mil.
The remaining scholarships have been presented at three other ceremonies in Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Terengganu recently.
The scholarships were presented by Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik at Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP). Also present were Petronas president and Group CEO Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin and senior vice president of Group Human Resource Management Datuk Raiha Azni Abd Rahman.
The PESP is a testament to Petronas’ firm commitment in the development of Malaysia’s human capital and skilled professionals to spur the country’s socio-economic growth by providing them with access to world-class learning institutions.
In his speech, Wan Zulkiflee said: “At Petronas, we believe in investing in education and human capital development to provide a continuous pipeline of educated and skilled workforce.”
“We aspire to contribute to the development of a steady stream of talents that will support the industry and the nation’s future needs,” he said.
PESP was first introduced in 1975, a year after Petronas was established.
To date, the company has invested more than RM3bil in this programme and benefited over 36,000 recipients globally. It is now firmly part of Petronas’ larger corporate social responsibility in education.
Under PESP, sponsorships are granted annually to students to pursue their tertiary education up to their first bachelor’s degree in relevant courses at top local or international higher learning institutions. These include UTP, as well as foreign universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
This year, Petronas received more than 8,000 applications. Apart from excellent SPM results, each candidate must go through a rigorous selection process where good leadership skills and ability to work in a team are assessed. — Bernama