ElShaddai E-Graduate Programme: Helping Students Realise Their Fullest Potential
E-Graduate IT course facilitator Ng Weng Choh shares with us about the E-Graduate course and how it provides a rare opportunity for refugee youth to achieve their aspirations.
Can you share with us about yourself and your role in ElShaddai?
I’m a retired lecturer from Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore. After retirement, I moved to KL to serve as an Information Technology (IT) teacher for ElShaddai. I teach the IGCSE IT module for our secondary school students (Excel), and I’ve also been a mentor and facilitator for ElShaddai’s E-Graduate IT course for two years.
As an E-Graduate course facilitator, I ensure that students are keeping up with their work, help them with their assignments, and arrange internship or work experiences for them. They can even approach me for non-academic challenges too!
What is E-graduate course about?
Our E-Graduate course is a partnership between ElShaddai and Lisc Academy, an online university from the UK. Students can enrol in courses like Health and Social Care, Business Management and IT. Lisc Academy even provides students with virtual internships! The online programme is also very suitable for our students because they can complete modules at their own pace.
Why is E-Graduate important for the refugee community?
Our refugee students are just like you and me. We all have aspirations for our future, we all want to receive a good education and have a profession. However, our students are placed in a situation where these opportunities are not available to them. This E-Graduate course provides them with a one and only, rare opportunity to obtain a proper education that is accredited and recognised.
Furthermore, when our students become more qualified with professional certifications, it increases their chances of being resettled.
Why did you choose to take up this role?
I am an educator at heart. I believe in education, and its ability to help the student realise his/her fullest potential. Education is something that nobody can take away from us. You can take away my money, maybe even my dignity, but you can never take away my education.
What are some memorable moments for you?
Some of my most memorable moments are when I get to actually meet them in person, for example during graduation. I usually only see them on Zoom, since they are based in different parts of Malaysia. When I see them in real life, it is so wonderful to hear their stories of how they made it through the course despite their struggles. I feel so happy for them and those are the truly heartwarming moments for me.
Overall it has been very rewarding working with these students. I find it a joy, pleasure and honour to be teaching them. Even though they have to work in the day, and our mentoring sessions are often late at night, they take their education very seriously.
What are your hopes for your students?
I hope for the best for them, that they will realise their fullest potential as an IT graduate. I hope they can find a good job, be an active contributor to society, and also help to address the needs of the community that they are from.
To learn more about our E-Graduate programme, please visit : https://ecb.org.my/elshaddai-e-graduate-centre/
