Sepang, 3rd August 2015 – A memorandum of understanding between Asian Aviation Centre of Excellence Sdn Bhd (AACE) and the Astronautical Association of Malaysia (AstroX) was held at the AACE’s state of the art training centre today to mark a collaboration which will see both AACE provide regular simulator centre visits to participants from AstroX.
Mr Wan Mohd Ariffin Bin Wan Hussin, Assistant Director of Co-Curricular & Arts Division of the Ministry of Education was present to witness the signing ceremony, along with Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of AirAsia, Capt. Dato’ Fareh Mazputra Tun Ahmad Fairuz, CEO of AACE and Capt. Mohammed Faiz Kamaludin, President of AstroX.
The agreement will see both parties working closely in providing regular simulator centre visits for members of the Astronautics Club Malaysia as part of AACE’s CSR efforts in giving back to the community.
These visits are designed to expose school children aged between 10 to 12 to the wonderful world of aviation and science. The main objective of the programme is to ingrain the right philosophy of science to youth as part of the extra co-curricular activities conducted by the club.
The Astronautics Club Malaysia that was launched in January 2015 have seen participation from 27 schools within the Klang Valley and membership of more than 1,000 students this year. The club will be opened to all primary schools nationwide next year and targeting to recruit 100,000 members by year 2018.
For this event, 80 students from Sekolah Kebangsaan La Salle and Sekolah Kebangsaan Jenis Cina Puay Chai were selected for the inaugural visit. Other participating schools will get the opportunity to visit the centre as there will be ample number of visits a year that have been planned in the pipeline.
The children will get to learn using the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) approach in differrent areas such as flight simulation, engineering and cabin operations. AACE is the leading one-stop training centre in providing specialised aviation related training services within the ASEAN region.
Tony Fernandes, AirAsia Group CEO commented, “AACE has trained all of AirAsia’s workforce, and we are sure that through this CSR program with AstroX, we will be able to inspire and inculcate a sense of interest for science, and in particular aviation amongst the students who will be visiting AACE.”
CEO of AACE, Dato’ Captain Fareh Mazputra said, “We wish to play a role in educating the younger generation, apart from just being a training centre for the aviation industry. Hopefully, this collaboration will be a catalyst in helping these students to develop an interest and consider aviation as a field to venture into for their future. We look forward to welcoming all the school children in the future and hope that they will have fun while they are here.”
Captain Mohammed Faiz Kamaludin, the president of AstroX believes that activities conducted by Astronautics Club Malaysia will be able to promote the knowledge of science to schoolchildren across Malaysia. The nation is facing a sharp decline in the number of students being interested in science evident from the poor average scores garnered from Malaysian students sitting for the PISA and TIMSS assessments.
“We believe with the formation of astronautic clubs in schools, kids will be able to have a hands-on approach to science in which they will be able to think outside the box as well as learn leadership skills and working in a team. This is the STEM approach, and the government is activley promoting this cause. Simulator centre visits will inspire school children and provide them the opportunity to see possible future options in science and aviation related fields,” he added today.
In addition, without the support from corporate organisations such as AACE and other government agencies such as the Ministry of Youth and Science, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, programmes such as Astronautics Club Malaysia will not be able to take-off to become what it is today.
In the end, the most important factor is making sure that the schoolchildren and members of the astronautics club are inspired by the visit and take home with them something intangible and meaningful that will aspire them to be the best that they can be when they grow up, the moment they walk off from AACE’s flight simulator training centre.
AACE is a joint-venture between two aviation giants – which are CAE Inc of Canada (CAE) and AirAsia, the world’s best low cost airline for seven consecutive years. The world-class training centre caters various aviation related training services including jet pilot training, aircraft maintenance engineering training for Airbus, flight attendant, guest services, ramp services, professional development training, safety and handling of dangerous goods training, aviation management and many more. AACE also holds regulatory approvals from various National Aviation Authorities of Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, Japan, Dubai, Cambodia, Vietnam, South Korea, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and many more.
