THE Penang Youth Development Corporation (PYDC) has come up with yet another initiative, this time by holding a virtual speaking skills competition for the youth.
The state-owned body has joined hands with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Big Domain and Moden Academy to organise a competition called ‘Penang Live Streaming Star Championship 2020’.
It is aimed at encouraging the involvement of youth in the area of public speaking and to highlight their capabilities in this digital era.
State Youth and Sports Committee chairman Soon Lip Chee emphasised that such platform is crucial to also sharpen the youth’s critical thinking ability as well as to increase their awareness of the importance of the current digital world.
“This initiative is clearly in line with the state’s agenda to produce young digital talents and to brand Penang as a digital talent hub, towards online and digital commerce by offering a variety of job opportunities.
“The youth of our country are the rising stars who will lead the way for us. Through this competition, I hope they will be able to shine brightly and prove a point that we as responsible citizens, must innovate and create opportunities that will bring good for the whole community,” said Soon during a press conference in Komtar on Nov 5.
The competition is open to individuals aged 15-30 years old. Participants must be a Penang-born or who works and studies in Penang.
There will be two rounds and the official language to be used throughout is only English.
The first round will be held from Nov 7 to Dec 4, with 400 individuals expected to participate. In this round, participants will be given three choices of topics to choose from by the organisers, and they will then be required to submit a one-minute video and to be posted on their respective Facebook pages and YouTube channels.
Meanwhile, in the final round, 30 participants will be shortlisted to submit a five-minute video based on topics that will be provided by the organisers.
The first prize winner will bag RM2,000 while second, third, fourth and fifth place winners will take home RM1,500, RM1,000, RM800 and RM500 respectively.
PYDC general manager Dr Gwee Sai Ling said participants would be evaluated based on their execution of ideas, presentation skills, tones, level of confidence, styles and content arrangements.
“Apart from just participating in this competition and many others organised in the past, this is a golden opportunity for the youth to consider it as a career.
“In a time of uncertainty to secure jobs, individuals who are passionate and highly interested in this field can consider this as their career and start making money.
“We (PYDC) would like to thank USM, Big Domain and Moden Academy for showing concern over the well-being of our youth in the state,” said Gwee.
For further information about the competition, visit PYDC website at www.pydc.com.my or their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pydc.my.
Also present during the press conference were Air Itam assemblyman Joseph Ng Soon Siang, Chief Minister Incorporated (CMI) deputy general manager S. Bharathi and USM representative Dr Daisy Kee Mui Hung.
Story by Kevin Vimal
Pix by Alissala Thian