Sunway launches 42KL - coding school with no tuition, teacher or classrooms

Sunway Education Group has launched 42KL, a local branch of the free coding school that now has 23 campuses after opening six years ago in Paris, Fance.

42KL is the Malaysian campus of 42 and will be operated in a collaboration among Sunway Education Group, Sunway iLabs and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).

"The first 42 campus was established in Paris, France in 2014 and the second in Silicon Valley in 2017. The 42KL campus in Sunway City Kuala Lumpur is one of the first such campuses in Southeast Asia.

“42KL will help lay the foundation for Malaysia to become the leading digital economy in ASEAN. The venture also testifies to our commitment to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations,” said Sunway Group founder and chairperson Jeffrey Cheah at the virtual launch yesterday.

“We recognise that realising the SDGs is not the responsibility of governments alone. It requires the commitment of all segments of society – the private sector, academia, civil society ... every single individual.

42 operates on a unique model as it has zero tuition fees, zero teachers and zero traditional classrooms.

It offers peer-to-peer learning and is completely merit-based with the only requirement to apply being that students must be above 18 years old.

Focusing on project-based learning imitating real-world work, the school encourages students to learn time management and build conceptual frameworks that can be applied to industry challenges and problem statements.

This is via peer-to-peer learning where students are responsible for their own success and the whole programme is gamified, where progress is accounted for using experience points through the completion of each project.

MDEC chief executive officer (CEO) Surina Shukri said:

“42KL is a welcome addition to our vibrant digital talent development eco-system as it will surely unearth more high potential Malaysian tech talents and groom them to become world-class developers and tech entrepreneurs.”

“Malaysian talents have a great opportunity to make that digital leap with 42KL’s internationally-recognised educational approach and help make Malaysia the digital workforce hub in the region,” she added.

42KL is now open for applications for enrollment and its first intake is tentatively slated for Nov 1, 2020.

Interested candidates can visit https://42kl.edu.my/ for enrollment and more information. All applicants will sit for an online test before 450 of them are selected to a pool of 450 students who will undergo an on-site assessment for four weeks.

From there, the final 150 students will be chosen to embark on Levels 1 to 7 for the core curriculum stage which will last approximately 12 months.

After Level 7, the students will undergo an industry placement for three to six months with one of 42KL’s partner companies.

Thereafter, the students can choose to seek employment or return to the 42KL campus to continue their studies from Levels 8 to 21 – the specialisation stage lasting approximately another 24 months.