42 is the first in the world to offer peer-to-peer learning and is completely merit-based. The only requirement is that students must be above 18 years old. This ground-breaking coding school has a disruptive educational model as it has no tuition fees, no teachers, and no traditional classrooms.

42KL is the Malaysian campus - situated within the FutureX building in Sunway City Kuala Lumpur and operate with 42’s innovative model in collaboration with Sunway Education Group, Sunway iLabs and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).

Anchor partners that have signed up thus far include Sunway Group, CIMB, Roland Berger, DHL, Huawei, and Carsome. The first 42 campus was established in Paris, France, and the second in Silicon Valley, in the United States. The 42 campus in Sunway City Kuala Lumpur is one of the first such campuses in Southeast Asia.

Focusing on project-based learning imitating real-world work, the school encourages students to learn time management and build conceptual frameworks that can be applied to industry challenges and problem statements. This is done via peer-to-peer learning where students are responsible for their own success and the whole programme is gamified. Progress is accounted for using “experience “as points through the completion of each project. Minister of Multimedia and Communications YB Dato’ Saifuddin Abdullah, in his speech, congratulated Sunway Group on another milestone towards the nation’s development. “This is indeed a brilliant idea of coming up with a new methodology, a new system, and a new approach to education. We are now facing a very fast-changing geopolitical advancement in the world, but nothing can challenge the advancement of technology,” the minister said.

“Changes in technology are inevitable; we have to embrace them in a certain way to produce many benefits for all of us.” “We have to face new types of jobs, environments and technologies. Education has to move together with such advancements – that is why I take it that 42KL is moving in the right direction,” he added.

In his address, Sunway Group founder and chairman Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey Cheah said the Group looks forward to contributing to and helping the nation by producing quality talents relevant to various industries, to overcome challenges in an era of rapid changes.

“42KL will help lay the foundation for Malaysia to become the leading digital economy in ASEAN. The venture also testifies to our commitment to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations,” said Cheah.

“We recognize that realising the SDGs is not the responsibility of governments alone. It requires the commitment of all segments of society – the private sector, academia, civil society … every single individual.”

“The partnership among Sunway’s educational institutions, MDEC, industry players and Ecole 42 serve as an excellent example of this philosophy,” he added.

MDEC chief executive officer Surina Shukri shared: “42KL is a welcome addition to our vibrant digital talent development eco-system as it will surely unearth more high potential Malaysian tech talents and groom them to become world-class developers and tech entrepreneurs.”

“Malaysian talents have a great opportunity to make that digital leap with 42KL’s internationally-recognized educational approach and help make Malaysia the digital workforce hub in the region,” she added.

This article has been adapted from the original story found in QS WOW News