“I’ve heard about Teach For Malaysia and their Fellowship programme but I’m still not too sure about what happens beyond the two-year Fellowship?”
Sounds familiar? If you are one of the many people who have been wondering about the same question, read on to know more about how the two-year Fellowship can make a difference.
Over the next few months, we will be sharing stories about our Alumni from different sectors. We hope that these stories will help you gain a better understanding of Teach For Malaysia’s long-term impact, which is to create a movement that will continue to drive systemic change within and beyond classrooms.
What happens after Fellows complete their two-year Fellowship?
Fellows go on to be part of Teach For Malaysia Alumni, where they will join a network of like-minded leaders who go on to champion our cause across sectors. We, at Teach For Malaysia, believe in cultivating a strong network of Alumni to affect long term impact. There are 4 main high impact alumni pathways that Teach for Malaysia intends to focus its alumni pipeline in, namely, the Ministry of Education, Social Enterprises, Corporate and Teach For Malaysia/Teach For All.
Do Alumni continue to drive systemic impact within and beyond the classroom?
Yes, they do. In fact, 80% of Alumni are still engaged in the mission whether it’s going back to their schools to tutor students on weekends, helping the new Fellows when needed, fundraising for TFM and so on.
The teaching Alumni go on to drive systemic impact as they stay on for their third and fourth year of teaching in school while many of our other Alumni continue to visit their schools to ensure that their initiatives are sustained. Some of the many amazing initiatives like Closing the Gap, Projek ID and Afterschool, which are spearheaded by 2012 Fellows, continue to impact students’ lives by helping students learn to read, learn to take ownership of their dreams and by providing students exposure to a variety of pathways that they can explore after completing high-school. Some 2013 Alumni also continue to thrive Teach For Malaysia’ mission and vision by ensuring their initiatives are maintained, while others go on to start student centred social enterprises like Arus dan LitMas (Literacy Malaysia).
Does the two-year experience help Fellows career-wise?
Although we encourage our Fellows to stay in school after completing the two-year Fellowship, we still respect and support their decision to explore career pathways that they would like to explore. The Fellowship provides a powerful platform to interact with a variety of stakeholders, especially our corporate partners such as Google, McKinsey & Co, PwC, HSBC, and etc. They are excited about the calibre Teach For Malaysia is attracting and recognise the selective nature of the programme as well as the significant leadership skills Fellows would gain and bring with them to their future organisations.
How does the teaching experience develop Fellows personally and professionally?
Teach For Malaysia and our external stakeholders believe that excellent teachers use similar skills to excellent leaders in different sectors. Tough classroom environments provide ample opportunities for innovation, self-development and growth. Both public and private sectors employers will always be on the lookout for individuals with exceptional leadership skills such as strategic management, communication and resourcefulness that can be made valuable at any workplace.
Almost all Fellows feel that the two-year Fellowship has helped them hone leadership skills that even they were not aware of when they first started their Fellowship journey. Some Fellows may have had their worries and doubts about the Fellowship during the initial stages but they then realised that the Fellowship gave them the opportunity to invest not just in the future of Malaysia, but also in developing themselves personally and professionally.
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