UMS faculty holds sharing session on study opportunities

KOTA KINABALU: Some 70 students from SMK Tebobon attended a sharing session on study opportunities offered by the Faculty of Tropical Forestry (FPT) of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) yesterday.

FPT Forest Plantation and Agroforestry Programme head Dr Affendy Hassan said the faculty offers five programmes, namely International Tropical Forestry, Nature Parks and Recreation, Wood Technology and Industry, Forest Plantation and Agroforestry and Conservation Biology.

“The programmes are open to science stream students who meet the minimum requirements.”

Affendy said the sharing session was organized to promote awareness and interest in science subjects among students, which is currently on a decline.

“It is the university’s responsibility, especially the FPT, to turun padang to schools and provide a clear understanding of forestry study programmes.

“Such programmes were held before the Covid-19 pandemic, and even during the pandemic, we continued to organize the sharing session virtually.”

He said the physical sharing session was held in compliance with the standard operating procedure (SOP) to allow students to interact and pose questions to the speaker.

Affendy, who is also the founder of Malaysia Society of Agroforestry (MySAF), also urged students to seize the opportunities arising from the rich forestry resources in the state.

He said the wealth of forestry resources in Sabah could potentially create job opportunities to future graduates and indirectly contribute to the country’s revenue.

“Hence, students should seize the opportunity to pursue their study in forestry because it has been proven that forestry graduates have high marketability and often receive job offers as soon as they graduate.”

Also present at the programme were SMK Tebobon principal Faridah Raimin and Technical and Vocational Training (TVET) head Tamin Ongki.