Taylor's SHTE Students Bagged First Prize in Asia Pacific BE Youth Challenge 2022, South Korea

Taylor's School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events (SHTE) won the First Prize in the Asia Pacific Business Events (BE) Youth Challenge 2022 held at Goyang, South Korea. The challenge were co-organized by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) and Korea Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) Association. The winning team comprised of two Bachelor of International Events Management students - Ting Sze Yie, Lau Jie Xi and the Advisor cum Lecturer Ms. Ng Wai Yee, who represented Taylor’s University and Malaysia to compete in this challenge.

This first-ever Asia Pacific BE Youth Challenge aimed to foster the minds of young professionals and future leaders in the business events industry, by providing an exclusive opportunity for participants to take center stage in showcasing their innovative and creative marketing ideas through specially designed scenario challenges.

The competition consists of 2 rounds, in the first round the students were required to prepare a proposal on the creative marketing solutions for an emerging city to increase competitiveness as international business events destinations. The 6 finalists who made it to the second round were invited to Goyang Destination Week at Goyang, South Korea where the teams were required to present their ideas in-person to the panel.

Taylor's winning team has chosen Miri, a city in Sarawak as the destination for their proposal, as it is not only an energetic resort city but also has plenty of potential as a Business Events city.

Congratulations and Well Done once again to the students!

Taylor's School of Education Won Student-Educator Pitching Award 2022

One academic and two student teams from the School of Education (SoEd), Faculty of Social Sciences & Leisure Management, Taylor's University received Gold and Bronze award at the International E-Content Development Competition (e-ConDev) 2022 under the Pitching Innovative Teaching and Learning Strategies category organized by the Ministry of Higher Education and Universiti Teknologi MARA. The competition was held virtually from August 22nd to August 30th, 2022. This event involved four categories of competition, namely, Micro-Credentials, Open Educational Resources, Pitching, and Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).

The objectives of e-ConDev 2022 were to increase the quality of e-content used in the teaching and learning process and to nurture interest and encourage the development of e-content. This also serves as a platform to share best practices in teaching and learning.

A Gold award was presented to Dr. Vinothini Vasodavan, Lecturer, School of Education for her project titled "Collaborative TPACK: A Module for Innovative Pedagogies and Powerful Learning" under the Educator Pitching category. The Bronze award was presented to Gurpreet Kaur and Zhang Wen, SoEd postgraduate students for their project titled "A Holistic Approach to Teaching English Grammar" under the Student-Educator Pitching category. Besides that, another Bronze award was presented to Joanne Loh Swee Wen, also a postgraduate student from SoEd for her project titled "A Warm-Up Activity Before Class Encourages Children's Emotional Engagement" under the Student Pitching category. The two teams of students were supervised by Dr. Vinothini Vasodavan.

FSLM Academics Emerged as Finalist in Honorable Minister of Higher Education Special Award AKRI 2022

AKRI is a prestigious award organized by the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) which aims to identify and recognize education innovators and promote sharing of best practices for future implementation. This year, our innovators beat more than 200 submissions received nationwide from Institut Pengajian Tinggi Awam (IPTA), Institut Pengajian Tinggi Swasta (IPTS) and Polytechnics Malaysia. Three Academics from Taylor's Faculty of Social Sciences & Leisure Management have made the Faculty proud again in the recent Honorable Minister of Higher Education Special Award - AKRI 2022 and emerged as the Top 5 Finalists shortlisted for pitching sessions in their respective categories.

The Student Teacher Enhancement Program (STEP) for an Integrated Cross-cultural Communication Skills Development project from School of Education was awarded as Finalist under the category of Immersive Learning Experience (Fully Online). This project was led by Dr. Joseph Velarde, who presented at the pitching session on the 26th August 2022 at Everly Hotel in Putrajaya. He was joined by his project teammate also from School of Education Dr. Tan Shin Yen and Ms. Mindy Tay Pei Lin. Prior to the pitching session, the group submitted a comprehensive portfolio of the programme.

They showcased how STEP has used an eco-system of technological tools and platforms to develop the 3Cs (Communication, Character, and Cultural Awareness) of future student-teachers. To prepare students for their practicum, STEP provided students opportunities to engage in interactive activities and produce meaningful tasks online. At the end of this 9-week online programme, it was noted how students were able to develop their communication skills and change their perspectives to equip them with the proper mindset and relevant skill sets prior to joining their practicum.

Ms. G. Manickam Govindaraju from School of Media and Communication together with her project teammate, Ms. Haniffa Beevi Abdul Jaleel from Learning Innovation and Development have submitted the project entitled, “i-REPLACE Model in Promoting Youth Awareness on myGAP (Malaysia Good Agricultural Practice)” that was also shortlisted as a Finalist for pitching under Immersive Learning Experience (Blended) category with four other participations.

Her submission was the final year Public Relations Event Consultancy Project module in collaboration with Department of Agriculture (DOA) as the industry client. Various students’ activities across immersive blended learning through this project were emphasized. Visit to the biggest myGAP Starfruit farm in Mantin, Negeri Sembilan through DOA Putrajaya and Negeri Sembilan for media content, myGAP created awareness to the community by participating in Selangor Agro Green and Innovation Expo 2022, Gombak.