YB Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Launches KDU Youth Empowerment Plan at IOJ Volunteer Appreciation Day

SHAH ALAM, 20 December – Institut Onn Jaafar patron Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein Onn officially launched KDU University College’s Youth Empowerment Plan, together with KDU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Hiew Pang Leang and Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academic Associate Professor Dr Hon Wei Min, at the IOJ Volunteer Appreciation Day held on 18 December at KDU’s Utropolis Glenmarie campus.

The non-government organisation’s Volunteer Appreciation Day saw almost 1,000 student-volunteers honoured for their participation in and contribution of IOJ’s JOM BEKPES morning soup-kitchen campaign, where volunteers served and ate breakfast with homeless people and underprivileged kids in Kuala Lumpur in 2016. Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein Onn was present to hand out awards for Best Volunteer and Best University.

As part of their commitment towards IOJ initiatives, KDU also pledged to channel its students taking Corporate Social Responsibility as a subject towards charity programmes organised by the NGO. KDU believes that one of the most vital traits of real world education in parallel with real world needs, is to work with surrounding communities. The institution interacts with a variety of communities and instils in its students the skills required to work with these communities effectively through compulsory subjects, such as Corporate Social Responsibility and Co-Curricular Activities & Community, in its programmes.

The commitment is part of KDU’s Youth Empowerment Plan and is in line with the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB) to produce all-rounder graduates with outstanding capabilities and interdisciplinary skills.

“For us here at KDU, we stay true to our ethos of real world education meeting real world needs, and ensuring our students become all-rounders with outstanding capabilities and interdisciplinary skills. This is an ongoing process within KDU, so the empowerment plan is actually not something new to us. However, there are always continuous measures to strengthen this empowerment plan. Therefore, the KDU Youth Empowerment Plan that was launched today is a reflection of that – our continuous effort to ensure our students develop the skills and attributes necessary for them to hit the ground running,” Professor Hiew explained.

Continuing, he said, “The National Education Philosophy’s vision aims to educate graduates to be ethically and morally upright, spiritually grounded, compassionate and caring; appreciates sustainable development and a healthy lifestyle. Our Youth Empowerment Plan is built around the MEB and what it hopes to achieve.”

KDU’s Youth Empowerment Plan is anchored on 5 main pillars and aims to produce well-rounded graduates through various action plans in these 5 pillars.  

Its five pillars are:

• Career (KDU Career Exploration)

The difference between a job and a career is passion, and the nurturing of the growth of this passion by supporting the connection between employers and students, and facilitating the process of job/training selection, will lead them to building life-long careers. Some of the activities include: Career Fairs and Expos, workshops and training sessions on communication skills, CV-writing, interview preparation and such.

• Culture (KDU Culturaltion)

This initiative prepares students to have cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity as well as be attuned to diversity in the changing workplace environment. Diversity creates curiosity; events and activities organised will direct students to learn more about people and their cultures. Some of the activities include: Student exchange programmes, cultural nights, local tours and foster family dinner sessions for international students.

• Fitness (KDU Fitspiration)

Fitspiration is a combination of the words “fitness” and “inspiration”. This promotes physical and mental health as well as well-being, with students being inspired to adopt a healthy lifestyle. In this light, KDU students are encouraged to engage in various programs and activities conducted to mentally stimulate, to inspire creativity as well as strive to cultivate a physically and mentally healthy lifestyle.

• Sustainability & Awareness (KDU Sustainability)

Through this initiative, KDU students will learn not only about environment protection, but that they, too, have a part to play in creating long-lasting efforts for economic and social development of the community and the nation. In line with this, activities and events from this initiative aims to create awareness among students about the importance and need for sustainability efforts, and the personalised actions they can take to make a difference. 

• Entrepreneurship (KDU HatchUp)

The KDU Hatch Up initiative empowers student to turn ideas into viable enterprise opportunities and stand up in the market. In line with this, Hatch Up aims to facilitate students in learning to develop entrepreneurial skills, by supporting creativity, self-generated ideas and efforts. This action plan intends to give KDU graduates a chance to see their ideas take shape in reality, with support from KDU University College, and further fuel their journey to be a self-made success by developing an entrepreneurial mindset – driven, resourceful, persistent, and above all, dedicated to a cause to call their own.

To find out how you can hit the ground running with KDU University College, log on to www.kdu.edu.my or call 03-5565 0538 (KDU University College, Utropolis, Glenmarie) / 03-7953 6688 (KDU College, Damansara Jaya).