PRESTIGE stands for Practical Environmental, Safety and Industrial Guidance for Student Engineers. It is an educational community project for student engineers to be aware of and appreciate HSE issues and challenges faced by modern engineers and to help them build a firm foundation for their future as engineers.

The objectives of PRESTIGE are:
i. To create awareness and expose students to the whole value chain of gas industry.
ii. To create Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) awareness of the proper usage, delivery and application of gas products.
iii. To raise understanding of the HSE & Sustainable Development issues faced by the industry today.
iv. To enhance the students’ understanding of HSE by sharing tools and practices and their application.
v. To provide an overview of the career opportunities available in the gas industry.

MGA has been organising PRESTIGE since 2008 as an annual programme.
5 universities from the northern region participated in PRESTIGE 2014 with the involvement of 64 students and 7 lecturers. The universities are:

1. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Pulau Pinang
2. Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Perlis
3. Universiti Kuala Lumpur – Malaysian Spanish Institute (UniKL-MSI), Kedah
4. Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Perak
5. Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Perak.

MGA was assisted by an organizing committee comprises of representatives from PETRONAS, SHELL, ExxonMobil, Gas Malaysia Berhad, Dialog, PETRONAS Gas and Deleum in organizing PRESTIGE 2014.

PRESTIGE 2014 started in the evening of 31st October 2014 (Friday) after the participants checked into the hotel. A briefing and ice-breaking session was organized for the participants during dinner. After the ice-breaking session, each university gave a 10-minute performance which was won by UTAR.

The participants were grouped into 8 teams comprising of students from different universities to encourage interaction. Unlike previous years, the students stayed in the same team throughout the program including during HSE Competition.

Day 1 of PRESTIGE 2013 began with a safety briefing. This was followed by a welcoming speech by the President of MGA, Ir. Pramod Kumar Karunakaran. He welcomed the students and lecturers and gave a quick overview of the gas industry in Malaysia and the important role played by PETRONAS to ensure proper development of the gas industry for the benefits of the nation.

En. Megat Muzaffar from PETRONAS then gave a presentation on HSE Rules and Tools. This was followed by a group photography.
The participants then boarded 2 buses (equipped with safety belts) for a visit to Malakoff’s gas-fired combined-cycle power plant located in Prai. During the visit, the participants were given a briefing on the background, technical and safety aspects of the power plant, followed by a visit to the power plant’s control room and a short tour of the plant by bus before returning to the hotel for lunch.

During the afternoon session, YM Raja Dzulkarnain Raja Zainal Abidin, PETRONAS and En. Awangku Faizulemari Awang Tajuddin, Gas Malaysia gave a presentation on Natural Gas Value Chain which covered all aspects of the natural gas industry from upstream to downstream.

The next speaker was En. Zulkarnain Mohd Said from Shell Refining Company who facilitated a debriefing and discussion on the visit the power plant.
After a sumptuous dinner, En. Megat Muzaffar took the floor again and facilitated an HSE video session. 2 videos were screened which were “BP Texas City Incident” and “I Choose to Look the Other Away”. This ended the first day of the program.

Day 2 began with a recap of the first day. En. Zukarnain Mohd Said facilitated the HSE Challenge session during which the participants were briefed on various aspects of HSE and then tested with series of games and challenges. The session lasted until lunch.
After lunch and hotel check-out, Puan Azah Othman, SCOMI and Dr. Amir Adam Hon, PETRONAS gave a talk on career opportunities in oil and gas industry. This was followed by a Leadership Session facilitated by En. Khairul Faizi Abdul Karim from PETRONAS Leadership Center.

Mr Ho Sook Wah, Secretary General of MGA gave a closing speech.
The program ended with a presentation of certificates to all participants. Team 5 & 7 were announced as winners of the HSE Challenge. In addition, 4 participants were selected as best participants of PRESTIGE 2014.

Based on the feedback, the students were very thankful to MGA for organizing the program and for being selected to participate in the event and that they had benefited greatly from PRESTIGE 2014.