IKBN secures internship with MAPS theme park

PUTRAJAYA: National Youth Skills Institute (IKBN) students would have the privilege to undergo internship and seek employment opportunities with an international standard theme park in Ipoh, Perak from the first quarter of 2016.

In an agreement signed between Youth and Sports Ministry and Movie Animation Park Studios (MAPS) today, MAPS will provide internships to at least 40 IKBN students and offer prospective full-time employment for 20 students each year.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin was pleased with the training and career opportunities for IKBN students and said that it would allow the students to be exposed to international theme park work environment.

“With this arrangement, the IKBN students would be more marketable in the leisure, hospitality and tourism industry. I also hope that MAPS can provide specific training module of animation theme park management to the interns,” he said.

MAPS founder Ramelle Ramli said the selected students would be guaranteed on-the-job training for three months with allowance of RM1,300 per month.

“They will also be offered with career opportunity if they choose to pursue employment careers at MAPS.

“MAPS together with Perak Corporation Berhad will help the students to develop essential job knowledge and ‘soft’ skill sets for international theme park management. We will also equip the IKBN graduates to gain 10% more salary than the current job market rate,” said Ramelle.

Dubbed as the first animation theme park in Asia, MAPS is currently at 56% construction progress and due to completed by early next year.

“We will have the soft opening in March and we are planning for the grand opening in May,” said Ramelle, adding that the theme park was designed to captivate families and visitors of all ages.

The park will feature more than 40 attractions including rides and shows within the six themed zones sprawling over 52 acres (21ha) of land with various animation attractions including "Live Adventure Zone - Casper The Friendly Ghosts", "Mr Peabody & Sherman", "Megamind" as well as the renowned local animation production "BoBoiBoy".

“With the completion of the phase one next year, we expect it will provide 400 job opportunities and for the second phase, it will create job openings for another 600 people. We projected that we will receive 1.4 million visitors in our first year operation,” added Ramelle.