Choosing where to study, and what course to study, can often be difficult. At the recent SCaT Fair 2015, SarawakYES! spoke to representatives from educational institutions across Sarawak to understand more about what they offer, and to hear their tips for students.
Michelle Wong, a marketing executive at Executive College, was among those we spoke with:
Q: What type of courses does Executive College offer?
A: We offer Foundation in Art. We offer a Diploma in Quantity Surveying, which is a course that we specialise in. And there are two other programs: a Degree in Business Administration and a Degree in Construction Management.
Q: OK. What kind of questions should students ask themselves before choosing a course?
A: Usually what I would say is, what are their interests in the field they want to go into. And also the subjects. What are the subjects they feel confident in? I guess that is how they will know where their future lies.
Q: What kind of support does this college offer for potential students, such as financial support or counselling, to help them in choosing a major?
A: We offer counselling and we also have open days. Then we have a course preview that helps them get to know more about the course offerings to see if they really like what we offer.
Q: So when your students finish their studies and they need to transition to working life, what kind of assistance do you provide for that transition?
A: We encourage them to go for training for about half a year. They go through an internship and then they will see what working life is like. And also we have site visits (to companies) for them to go and see what their course will provide once they finish studying.
Q: So for those who are not very sure about what they want to study, what kind of advice would you give them?
A: We offer a counselling program where we can conduct a personality test for them. So, during our open day we have two activities for those who don’t really know what they want to do yet. One is they can go for that personality test and then also play some games to help them discover their interests … and then we can recommend a few of the courses we have in mind for them.
Q: What’s the best thing about studying in Sarawak?
A: For students who originate from Sarawak, I’d say it would be good for them to study here because it’s closer to home, close to their family.
Also when they finish their studies here, they can be proof to people out there that studying in Sarawak is a good thing, because mostly people want to go out of the country. They feel that they will be more exposed to other things if they go out of Sarawak. But studying in Sarawak, you can gain the same amount of knowledge as those studying outside.
