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2021 was a year full of great news and joy happening in Forward School. Though there were many challenges, there were also many achievements and milestones that we were proud of. Here is a timeline recap of what Forward School has achieved throughout the year.
We started off the year with the Star Education Fair that happened from 8th January 2021 to 9th January 2021 for secondary school students and parents to know more about the future demand in technology and how we are preparing for our students to fulfil that demand through our NitroDegree in Applied Software Engineering.
We had our first-ever 24-hour virtual hackathon where our Applied Software Engineering students convened for a day of coding and friendly competition to tackle an industry-level issue. As posed by our industry partner UST Global, the task was to create a functional COVID-19 Health Registration System for HR Departments. We were amazed at our first ever virtual hackathon winning team Hugs for Bugs (Tenish, Jing Way and Nicholas) as they successfully developed a responsive website with a data visualization dashboard, trackable QR codes and email alert system -- all under 24 hours!
We started our accreditation journey in 2019 for the first meeting between JPK, MDEC and FS. The session concluded that we would establish a new standard of Full-Stack Developers in Malaysia. Therefore, we assembled technical experts around the country with Strong Web Dev, Mobile Dev and Data Analysts to establish this latest standard of Full-Stack Development. After a year-long discussion and brainstorming with all the experts in the field, we have successfully established the standards and published the National Occupational Skill Standard (NOSS) in Jan 2021. We had since taken the NOSS, adopted it as our teaching and training standard, which allowed us to obtain the accreditation of Pusat Bertauliah by July 2021, this means that students from Forward School will graduate with an accredited Diploma. We further collaborate with many Universities around Malaysia to provide students with multiple further studies opportunities.
We closed off the year attending our final physical event in the Malaysia Education Fair 2021. Throughout the year, people have started to notice the demand and need for tech talents in this pandemic age. It was a great opportunity for us to share with secondary school students and parents who are more aware of the market trends that are demanding tech talents in various economic sectors.
We hosted a 6-day workshop for Mobile App Creating organised by Techdome where students aged 12-17 from various schools in Penang State were challenged to compete with one another in claiming the title of a Mobile App Maker Master creating a mobile app using Glide.
We have introduced 3 new cohorts throughout the year for our part time Data Science Bootcamps with working professionals from various backgrounds looking to upskill in Data Science in their relevant field, and enterprises who have looked to us as training providers.
Not forgetting our full time students who opted to join us for their college pathways in our NitroDegree in Applied Software Engineering, determined to be the next generation of problem solvers!
Our Applied Deep Learning bootcamp has guaranteed students job placements in AI engineering upon obtaining a passing rate from the CDLE exam, in partnership with Skymind Global. This year, Muhammad Harriz and Mohd Afiq Qayyum have managed to secure a job placement as Junior AI Engineers immediately at Skymind upon graduation.
We are honoured to have more than 25 hiring partners who believe in us and joined our cause in nurturing new tech talents for the digital workforce. Therefore, our students now have more opportunities to be engaged with our community of working professionals, as well as working alongside them and gaining working experience in the process.
This year, more companies have partnered with us to nurture the next generation of tech talents. They have been actively working with us in providing qualified students with scholarships that may encourage and develop them into full-fledged software engineers!
We closed out the year with a small gathering event with our students and co-workers. It was our first and last physical gathering for the year with games organised by our very own students. All in all, it was a good evening with food, drinks and presents for everyone who attended.
While we faced challenges and are proud of what we achieved in 2021, we are needlessly thankful and grateful for each of our team members, instructors, partners and students for the unending support that was given to us despite hardships, and as we strive to grow as a community here in Forward School. More challenges and goals await us in 2022, as our team of like-minded people in the Forward School community continues to aim for our students’ success in becoming the next generation of problem solvers. Interested? Find out more exciting adventures with us in 2022!