Jerantut, 22 - 24 December 2020 Kuala Tahan, 26 - 28 December 2020
Taman Negara is Malaysia’s largest national park that has one of the oldest rainforest in the world, housing a plethora of flora and fauna that are 130 million years old. The park is one of the most visited tourist attraction in Malaysia and has become an important source of income for those in the community, particularly the indigenous people better known as the “orang asli”.
During the period of Covid-19 pandemic, the park was ordered to close and it caused the economy of Taman Negara to take a bad hit.
As an initiative, the Human Resource Development Corporation (HRDCorp) responded to the crisis by awarding VC Ventures a RM1.5 million grant. This funding was to aid VC Ventures in conducting training programmes to 250 tourist guides and other tourist support personnel in public speaking skills. The participants were trained in several languages that majored in English as well as basic training in Spanish, French, Dutch and Mandarin to widen their opportunities in the industry.
Many notable figures in the area of public speaking was appointed by VC Ventures as instructors including Nizal Mohammad, a former TV3 presenter, Geoff Feyaerts who gained recent fame by portraying Captain Sears in the box office movie Mat Kilau and last but not least, a well known senior actor, Ezany Nizariff. The examiner of the programme was Theresa Leahy from Ireland.