Registration still open for Kecekapan-Rise programme

KUCHING (Aug 27): Registration is still open for Sarawakians who wish to participate in the Kecekapan-Rise programme, said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.

With a target of 500 participants, she said the programme has currently received 250 entries.

“The programme is still open for entry. I believe there will be more participants registering for the programme,” she said at a press conference here today after witnessing the signing of the notes of cooperation between Yayasan Kebajikan Negara (YKN) and UK-Malaysia Kecekapan Konsortium.

YKN was represented by its chief executive officer Nordina Haron, while UK-Malaysia Kecekapan Konsortium was represented by project principal investigator Dr Ramona Blanes.

Elaborating further, Nancy said the programme focuses on entrepreneurship education, which includes foundational entrepreneurship, financial literacy, innovation and creativity, marketing, and social media.

“The programme serves to assist those in the B40 (low-income) group, as well as our targeted groups, such as people with disabilities.

“We want to provide them with the opportunity of improving their skills, with successful participants receiving certificates from international universities.

“It is fully sponsored by the British Council. Each participant is sponsored RM4,000 and since we want to cater 500 participants, the total sponsorship will be RM2 million,” she said, adding that this is the first time such a programme is being conducted in Sarawak.

The programme will be conducted online, spanning 12 weeks from September to December this year.

Nancy said the participants can conduct the online study on their own time as the module offers flexibility in studying.

“We understand that some participants are single mothers who only have private time during the night; thus, with this flexibility, they can study on their own time,” she added.

Meanwhile, Ramona said interested individuals will need to contact YKN to register them into the University of Glasgow’s website to ease the monitoring of participants.

Upon registration, participants have access to the courses’ materials, with the materials made available in Bahasa Malaysia, English, and sign language.

The Kecekapan-Rise programme is a collaborative project between YKN alongside Kecekapan Konsortium, comprising the University of Glasgow, University of Aberdeen, Liverpool John Moores University, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, and Universiti Sains Malaysia.