ASEAN TVET ENGLISH PROGRAMME 2017: INTERNATIONAL PSR
Written by: Farahdibabt Md. Said
Politeknik Ibrahim Sultan (PIS) did it again. ASEAN TVET English
Programme 2017 was carried out at two different academic venues
in Batam, Indonesia: SMK Muhammudiah and Batam Tourism
Polytechnic (BTP). There were in total 17 of usinvolved in running
the programme: 12 students from various departments and 5
General Studies Department lecturers. Our journey to Batam started
on 6 February 2017 and we travelled back on the 8 February 2017.
ASEAN TVET English Programme originally was introduced by Politeknik Melaka (PMK). In 2016, Pn Marina from
PMK invited PIS International Relations Unit to collaborate in running the programme in Polytechnic Bandung,
Bandung, Indonesia. However, this year, PIS International Relations Unit chose to collaborate with three entities
within PIS itself: Student Affairs Department, General Studies Department and English Language Club.
The preparation for the programme began in November 2016 when the members of the English Language Club (ELS)
for December 2016 academic session were given the task of designing indoor games. The members were divided
into groups of two. Each group was asked to either come up with one original idea of an indoor game or adapt the
ones in the market.
In early January, the ELS members presented and demonstrated their indoor games. The club advisors together with three other invited lecturers evaluated the members’ ideas and five indoor games were selected. After that, each group was assigned to a lecturer who was responsible in polishing both the game and the presenters’ delivery manner.
The selected teams had less than one month to get ready. Still, we managed to try out all five games on a few PIS students who were not ELS members. The last few weeks before the trip were the most hectic period as we discovered that there were a lot of things to be done. That was the time when we realised that we did not have a cameraman and a runner. So, we decided to rope in two PIS International Buddy Clubmembers to help us.
Our journey to Batam started at 8.30am on 6 February 2017. PIS bus brought us to the PasirGudang Jetty where we waited for two hours before finally boarding the jetty. We were lucky as the weather was good. So the ferry ride was not that bad.
Our work began the night of 6 February 2017. Students were given packed food for them to eat in the rooms while the lecturers had a discussion with EncikFairullah from PoliteknikMersing, Malaysia, and BapakSyailendra Reza from Batam Tourism Polytechnic . At about 10.30pm, everyone assembled at the foyer of the hotel for the programme briefing.
On 7 February 2017, we left for SMK Muhammudiah at about 7.00am. We were quite nervous as we did not know what to expect. However, it turned out that both the teachers as well as the students were happy to have us. In fact, all of the year 4 students wanted to participate. Although our original target of participants was 100, we could easily accommodate the 160 eager and excited participants.
SMK Muhammudiah is somewhat like our technical school where students specialize in respectivedisciplines. The school offers a few disciplines such as Industry Electronic and Computer Networking. Nonetheless, we found that, in general, the students’ ability in English language was rather weak. Fortunately, there was a number of students who could communicate in English. Thus, to overcome the communication problem, we put the students in a mixed group and, at the same time, we went for plan B in which we simplified our games.
We were expecting a room each for the game. Instead, we were placed in a newly built hall. The hall was sufficiently wide and enabled everyone to move around easily. Unfortunately, there were hardly any fans. SMK Muhammudiah students seemed to be coping very well with the room temperature unlike the PIS team members.
The presenters under the supervision of PnFarahdiba wereHo Chia Hui and Chin Hui Li while PnAkhmaliah had NurAthilahHanim and Mohammad SyafiqulIzzat. Louvgethaan and Neo Soon Ann were the presenters at En Muhammad Alhafiz’s station. As for PnAinun’s station, there were Muhammad Izzatand NurLiyanaAfiqah and the final station, which was monitored by Cik Nora, was run by Noor FatinHanani and NurSyaqirin.
Each game lasted for 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes, Clarence blew the whistle and the groups needed to move to the next game as stipulated in the instruction sheets provided to them. Some stations provided small gifts for all the participants while others only awarded presents to the winners.
After the session ended at SMK Muhammudiah, we had our lunch at Barelang Bridge. We rested for a while before moving to Batam Tourism Polytechnic. The lecturers wanted to discuss on the venue of the programme. That was when we had a glimpse of our participants. Looking at their well-kept attire and beautifully planned building, some of us just simply lost our confident.
Batam Tourism Polytechnic of two years old is a private institution that offers degree courses: Room Division Management, Culinary Management and Food and Beverage Management. Its current enrolment is 200 students.
Our arrival on 8 February 2017 was met by three students who served us with drinks and wet towels. The five-starhotel treatment took us by surprise. For a brief moment, we were quiet and behaved extra-ordinarily demure. Once,all of us had settled, they escorted us to the hall for the opening ceremony.
We ran the program in the same manner as it was done at SMK Muhammudiah. However, here, we were given a room for each station. Thus, the noise of one station was nicely contained and failed to affect the games of other stations. In fact, all the rooms were equipped with LCD projectors and air-conditioning system. Before noon, the programme was over. We ended the session with Muhammad Zulqarnain Amin handling the photo-taking session .
Most of the Batam Tourism Polytechnic students could converse in English language rather well. Their level was just like PIS students: there were some who were very good and a small number of them who seemed to be struggling with the language.
On the whole, running the programme in Batam was a challenging but a fruitful one. We learnt a lot – a great eyeopener: the lecturers discovered a few new things about the arena of teaching while the students made numerous numbers of acquaintances. We sincerely hope that ASEAN TVET English Programme of Politeknik Ibrahim Sultan could be an annual activity.
