Marcel Gan, Chief Operating Officer of Enbun Elit Sdn. Bhd. shaking hands with UCSI Deputy Vice Chancellor at the launch of the Friends of Himalaya Programme

UCSI Deputy Vice Chancellor Chin Peng Kit Delivering His Speech

One for the Album

KUALA LUMPUR, 24 July 2008 - University College Sedaya International (UCSI) and Himalaya Herbal Healthcare today announced its pioneer Friends of Himalaya programme – an entrepreneur and internship programme – to cultivate skills of the next generation of young entrepreneurs while promoting excellence in education. 

This pilot programme is the first of its kind in Malaysia, where an industry player (Himalaya Herbal Healthcare) engages in a smart partnership with a university to nurture entrepreneurship skills among students, training them in the key areas of business, such as Management, Human Resource, Marketing Strategy, Accounting, and Administration functions. Through this experience, they will learn to establish a complete business operation including how to execute the initial set-up and product marketing, sales and promotion strategies. Students will also be groomed to think creatively and to explore their talents to promote products including brand advertising.

Seamlessly tailored to fit in line with UCSI’s academic content, Friends of Himalaya will be part of the students’ coursework whereby they will be given the opportunity to manage their own businesses from start to end, while assuming full ownership. All this is made possible through UCSI’s Enterprise & Entrepreneurship Zone (2EZ) which is a physical space especially allocated for this business concept. 

2EZ is UCSI’s innovation through the Blue Ocean Strategy, whereby enterprise and entrepreneurship is cultivated through skills and opportunities that are already available. Managed by the Student Council and supervised by the Student Affairs Office, employers under the Co-Operative programme as well as UCSI subsidiaries would be invited to collaborate to provide product and skills training. In future, products produced by UCSI’s research & commercialisation unit can also be marketed through 2EZ. 

“Developing collaborative relationships with prestigious institutions are of utmost importance to Himalaya as an organisation. Locally, we recognise that there is a need to build upon, and improve the link between education and business at all levels as exemplified by this Himalaya-UCSI partnership in learning and skills development which will prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs” said Marcel Gan, Chief Operating Officer, Embun Elit Sdn Bhd. 

Friends of Himalaya also provides a unique internship course as part of UCSI’s compulsory internship programme. During the internship, students will be required to set up their own Himalaya business booths and run their business daily, using only the available resources around them to spur greater enterprise and entrepreneurship skills. 

“Students with the potential to be entrepreneurs are usually lost in transition from the study phase to the career phase and the involvement of Himalaya through the Friends of Himalaya programme will enhance and facilitate their transition into the real business world,” said Associate Professor Chin Peng Kit, Deputy Vice Chancellor, UCSI. 

The first batch of 12 students participating in this project are from the Faculty of Applied Sciences, namely from the School of Food Sciences and School of Biotechnology. Project Leader and second year student Thong Yik Chin says that her main reason for signing up with Friends of Himalaya is the opportunity to have job experience that complements her field of study, which is Food Science. “I wanted to have a wide experience in other areas before graduating.” she says. Cherlyn Tiew, who is in charge of Marketing in the project, says “We plan to have a different promotional angle every month, and are looking forward to the weeks ahead. We hope to see this project take off, with the opening ceremony today giving us the added boost and exposure.”