The officials from CM Asia Learning Pte Ltd, Eduspec Holdings Bhd and Senior Management of TAR UC holding up the signed MoA (from left to right): Mr Lim Soon Seong, Executive Director, Eduspec Holdings Bhd, Assoc Prof Dr Ng Swee Chin, Vice President of TAR UC, Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok, Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Alimuddin Haji Mohd Dom, Independent Non-Executive Director, Eduspec Holdings Bhd, Mr Yeoh Cheng-Poh, Chief Executive Officer of CM Asia Learning Pte Ltd and Mr Lim Een Hong, Chief Executive Officer, Eduspec Holdings Berhad.

Mr Yeoh Cheng-Poh giving a speech on the outcome of the MoA signing ceremony.

Mr Lim Een Hong thanking all involved in the tripartite collaboration.

Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok elaborating on the future of STEM education.

A group photograph of all those present at the MoA signing ceremony.

Following an earlier Memorandum of Understanding signed in February 2016, TAR UC, CM Asia Learning and Eduspec Holdings had entered into a Memorandum of Agreement ('MoA') on 2 June 2016 to kickstart the provision of a world-class STEM (acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education for school students in Malaysia. The strategic collaboration aims to increase STEM literacy among the school students so as to build up a sustainable STEM talent pool who will take the lead in the areas of technology and innovation to push Malaysia towards high income nation.

In this tripartite collaboration, TAR UC will assume the dual role as validator and certification issuer in the first phase in which the University College will evaluate and validate the results of students and teachers' assessment in the abovementioned STEM programmes and jointly award the certification with Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy ('CMRA'), a world-renowned robotics research academy which is an educational outreach of Carnegie Mellon University. Subsequently in the second phase, TAR UC will be appointed as the Master Trainer which will provide STEM Educator Training programme to train and certify teachers to enable them to teach the STEM with Computer Science and STEM with Robotics programmes.

During the signing of the MoA, Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok, President of TAR UC, highlighted that TAR UC was entrusted to play such an important role based on the outstanding track record in the areas of engineering and information & communication technology ('ICT'). "TAR UC has built a solid reputation in engineering and ICT as our intensive industry-relevant programme curriculum has produced highly qualified graduates who are much sought after by the industries. We establish close collaboration with many global industry leaders to facilitate transfer of the latest technology and knowledge and continuously upskill our teaching faculty to ensure they are always at the forefront to teach the students."

Mr Yeoh Cheng Poh, CEO of CM Asia Learning, added: "In the United States, Robomatter, Inc. has trained more than 11,000 teachers and have implemented STEM programs in more than 16,000 schools. With the new partnership with TAR UC, we hope to create awareness of our STEM programs and to train more educators in Malaysia with essential STEM teaching methods and pedagogy to ensure that students are well-prepared for their future workplace."

"We believe that the introduction of the two STEM programmes in our local schools can help the students think outside the box and pique their interest in STEM learning. We are grateful to TAR UC for coming on board to help us with this endeavor," said Mr Lim Een Hong, Eduspec Chief Executive Officer.

"In our increasingly interconnected and technical world, the skills that accompany a quality STEM education are more important than ever," said Skip Smith, President of Robomatter, Inc. "We are excited to support this partnership, and continue the mission to provide high-quality, cost-effective K-12 STEM education solutions to classrooms around the world, helping ensure students are ready to compete in our global, emerging economy."