Once you have completed your SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) or ‘O’ Levels, you will have to choose which area of specialization you want to pursue. For those of you who have yet to decide what you want to do, you can get into any pre-university programmes which are mostly generic. To begin with if your results in SPM permits, you can continue in the public schools to pursue your Form 6 which will gain you entry into the local universities through your STPM (Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia) qualifications. Otherwise you can apply to any private colleges or universities where you can obtain your ‘A’ Levels, which is the British equivalent to the STPM. Otherwise, you can also take up the Canadian Pre-University or the South Australian Matriculation programmes, all of which will essentially gain you entry into Universities. These programmes however are less popular as graduates are slowly moving towards the Foundation programmes.

As an alternative to the generic pre-university programmes, you can also opt for the more specialized progrmames like Foundation in Business, Foundation in Law or Foundation courses in Information Technology. Upon completion of these programmes you will then gain entry into the degree or diploma courses in the same field. Note that once you have enrolled in the foundation courses, it might be harder if you decide to change your course later. Therefore, it is very important that if you are very determined that this is the field that you are interested to pursue your career in before enrolling for Foundation courses, otherwise it is advisable for you to enroll in the more generic pre-university courses to determine which area you are good at before deciding.