Friday 30 December 2016

Interview Yayasan Peneraju , MyPAC and ACCA

Once we have set our mind to pursue ACCA, the next thing that came to mind was the funding aspect. If you're like me, I will try my best to seek sponsorship. With all the initiatives by the government, it would be such a waste not to apply for the sponsorship by Yayasan Peneraju Pendidikan Bumiputera. 

To give you some context, here's the fee structure.
  • Initial Registration - £79
  • Annual Subscription - £95 [as long as you're a student]
  • Exemption Fees - £72 (for F1-F3) and £97 (for F4-F9)
    • If you're an accredited Accounting graduate, you'll have to fork out £738 before you can start with the remaining 5 professional papers
  • Exam Fees for Professional Paper - £121/ £128/ £289 (depending on how early you register)
All of the above are payable to ACCA UK, in British Pound. If it took you 2 years to complete all 5 papers in one attempt, you'll pay £1647. Convert that to RM, it's nearly 10 grand.

Add in the tuition fees and the materials, the amount is a lot!
(I heard the tuition fees in Sunway is RM2,000+ per subject)



If you go to Yayasan Peneraju's website here, you'll see the various sponsorship categories. For ACCA program, it's under Peneraju Profesional.


Part time students like me falls under Peneraju Professional Pensijilan Perakaunan (PPPP).
Be alert of the announcement and the deadline as the application is not open all year through.

In the application form, you can choose whichever tuition provider you want. I chose Unitar for a myriad of reasons. 
  • Unitar is near to my house and public transport (in case of weekday classes)
  • The ACCA lecturers at Unitar are among the best in the industry
  • The class size is pretty small (there were only 4 of us in P3 class)
  • The infrastructure was great, the building is new and compact
  • At the time, my ex Khazanah Scholarship manager was the director of Unitar Professional Accounting Center so I have faith in him though I was among the first batch of students there
I specifically avoided Sunway because I know they have a LOT of students and I don't want to pressure myself. Hahaha

At Unitar, the program is quite special because they collaborated with MyPAC. To learn more about the organization, you can read it here

To quote the website ; 
MyPAC is a collaborative development centre that facilitates and supports Bumiputera professional accountants candidates while Yayasan Peneraju is an initiative under the Bumiputera Economic Transformation Programme launched under the Economic Planning Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department.
At the time, another prominent figure from Khazanah Scholarship team was in MyPAC so that pushes me even more to apply at Unitar. 


So after I submit my application along with the required documentation, I was called for an interview session. FYI, the interview will be held at the university of your choice (as per the application form).

The interview was a full-day event, starting with a Reasoning Ability Test. Surprise, surprise. It was the exact same test I sat for in 2010 - Yayasan Khazanah's Scholarship [First Stage Test]. This test was commissioned by MyPAC. The tests consisted of numerical, abstract logic, spatial reasoning, logical processes and social context components. 

The results were shared later in a one-to-one session with the Care Bear team from MyPAC. The tests were aimed to identify your strength and the learning format most helpful for you. 

I scored poorly in the Social Context component but I guess that has the least connection to ACCA? Hahaha

Then, there was the English Assessment at the computer lab where you'll need to answer a series of questions. And there was a section for mini-essays as well. This will determine your English proficiency and to decide whether you'll be in Band 4, Band 5 or you'll be exempted altogether from English classes.

I was exempted, Alhamdulillah. 

After that, there's the interview session with reps from Unitar and Yayasan Peneraju. My advice, just be yourself, be confident and show your passion for ACCA. 

The results were announced a week later. Some of the candidates who failed the interview with Yayasan Peneraju were offered a scholarship by MyPAC. But the terms and condition are different from Peneraju's. 

For example, Peneraju will sponsor you for 2 attempts maximum for each paper but MyPAC will only pay for the first attempt. The subsequent attempts will have to be paid by yourself. 

The terms and condition set by Peneraju were as follows (these are by no means exhaustive);
  • Part-time students with full exemption (Accounting graduates) are given 3 years to complete the papers
  • You are allowed to sit for one paper per semester though it is possible to take more with permission 
  • The normal exam sitting is in June and December. However, you can sit for exams in March and September for special cases (repeat / to complete before 3 years deadline)
  • For the 3 years period, there are 6 main exam sittings which mean there's a buffer of 1 full semester in cases of deferring or repeating papers
  • Peneraju will pay for your second attempt. But the third and subsequent attempts for the same paper will have to be borne by yourself.
  • Once you passed the paper you failed before, Peneraju will continue to pay for the first and second attempt of the next paper
For example, Ali sat for P1. Peneraju paid for the first and second attempts. He failed marginally. So for the third attempt, he would have to pay the exam fees and tuition fees himself. He finally passes P1. The next semester he took P2. Peneraju will continue their sponsorship for P2 and the next papers.
  • If you pass all the papers in one attempt, EVERYTHING will be converted into a scholarship
  • If you failed even once, you'll have to pay 20% of the total cost.

For example, Ana passed her P1, P2, P3 and P4. For the last paper, P5 it took her two attempts to pass. Upon graduation, she would have to pay back to Yayasan Peneraju the 20% of her overall ACCA expenses, even for the papers she passed.

  • Peneraju is quite strict with the attendance and Progress Test marks. They have the power to defer you to the next exam sitting if either your attendance or Progress Test marks is unsatisfactory. 
    I think that's all for now. If you have any further question, feel free to ask. I'll be happy to help. 

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