Bangkit Academy was founded in April 2020 during the Movement Control Order in Malaysia. Like many Malaysians, we watched in horror as the job market crashed, thousands lost their jobs and our economy’s steady growth came to a screeching halt. 

In an effort to help in some small way, we embarked on a project to design and deliver a training program that would rapidly re-skill unemployed young Malaysians. Over the course of 5 months, we meticulously developed our content, screened over 1000 applications, selected 50 high-need participants and ran two consecutive 4 week programs which were offered free of charge for two separate cohorts of participants.

Through our engagement with participants and one to one feedback from Bangkit graduates, we were able to better understand their problem and adapt our program content accordingly to ensure Bangkit programs were serving the needs of our participants and solving a real problem for them. 

Our work taught us about the systemic challenges of youth unemployment and our little project became Bangkit Academy.

Too many of our young graduates are struggling to secure employment or are being forced to work jobs that don’t match up to their qualifications. They spend years pursuing a degree only to be told by employers that they don’t have the relevant skills and experience for the job.

Clearly, there is a gap between what young Malaysians are taught at college and what employers look for when hiring.

We are on a mission to close this gap

Bangkit is an education company and we’re experimenting with new learning models that have the potential to rapidly equip young Malaysians with the skills employers actually look for.