Education Fair 2013 in Malaysia

Every time when I go to the education fair, I find something is different. I guess I am witnessing the evolution of education industry in Malaysia. 

Most private institutions dominates the main halls in the education fair, with unique constructions of a large area which consist of many booths (12-16 open booths size). Also, there are actually many private higher education providers in Malaysia and growing larger. So far, I don't see any public university there (even if they are there, they will only take very few booths with minimum spending on the booth design). It shows that the private institutions are still more desperate for students than the public. Well, this has always been the norm, just that the private institutions are becoming more competitive and aggressive in sales and marketing.

Secondly, more students involvement in the marketing efforts by various institutions. They call them the 'student helper'. Their task is to give out flyers, goodies and to collect database by stopping everyone to fill up the enquiry form. Some institutions are like those Telcos (in blue, red, yellow t-shirts), assigning there student helper to try to grab anyone who passes by their booths to fill up the form (just like Telcos promoters-signing up a data plan or buying prepaid SIM). I just wonder if this is how education fair suppose to be - "selling" or it should be a place for counselling and to find out about courses available.

In this education fair, there are also some European universities participating under the European Union education booths. Their counsellors are all standing near to their booths welcoming the potential students to approach them to ask about their courses. It is not so much on collecting database as they are mainly here to create the awareness, provide informations and encourage the candidate to apply for their programmes if they are interested; not on "selling".

To some extent, I find that the approach used by many institutions now is more like trying to sell the visitors a product, just like in PC Fair (for ICT) or Matta Fair (for Travel and Tours). It is scary because the institutions are supposed to promote their courses by creating awareness, help the candidates to choose the right course, provide information on financial aid and to cultivate learning and development in younger generations.

What say you?

Beat the Traffic Jam!

How to beat the bad traffic jam in Kuala Lumpur city center? - Timing!

In normal working days, the jam will normally starts around 6.00pm but most of the time unpredictable and unexpected things can happen. Therefore, no matter how good is your planning and time yourself, you may still ended up stuck somewhere in the traffic. In normal days, timing is not the best strategy unless you have very good luck.

However, during the fasting month (puasa), the traffic can be more predictable.

Many companies allows their Muslim staffs to leave early. Some as early as 4.30pm. Mostly around 5.00pm. As such, the traffic was being normalised when people starts to leave their offices in different time. With this, the traffic may starts to pile up as early as 5.00pm but won't be that bad as not all can leave early.

The peak of the traffic might be at 6.00-6.30pm as all other working people will start leaving the office at 6.00pm. If you leave on time at 6.00pm, most probably you will reach home around 7.00pm+.

Now, what does this mean? By 7.30pm, the road should be cleaared. Firstly, many has already gone home and most probably reached home. Secondly, the break for fasting is around 7.25pm so many of our Muslim friends will be ready at home or at restaurants for their dinner.

Now, this is what I call the right timing. If you are off the road to head home or to any where, this is the best time. 7.30pm - 8.00pm is the best! Road will be cleared and smooth drive to your destination. You will save time, save fuel, less polution to the environment, better mood and less stress in driving! That's the fun of driving home during this fasting month.

Enjoy the smooth traffic everyone! Cheers!!!