Aqilah, TEAM

After honing her skills in a mangrove swamp, law student Aqilah is ready to face the workplace.

Aqilah (22) is in her final year at law school in Malaysia, but has always struggled with low self-confidence, finding it particularly hard to present her ideas and voice her opinions in public.

As graduation and job-hunting approached, Aqilah knew that if she didn’t tackle the issue head-on, it would become a barrier to her future success. So she signed up to the TEAM programme. ‘I was adamant to improve myself; to be more optimistic, confident, studious, and ambitious,’ she recalls.

Aqilah threw herself into the programme, stretching and challenging herself at every turn, and gradually building her confidence about speaking and presenting in public. But the real breakthrough came when she stepped up as a leader.

Building skills – and flood defences

The TEAM programme, designed by King’s Trust International, has a strong focus on learning by doing, and one module involves teams of students designing and delivering a community project. Determined to push herself, Aqilah volunteered to lead her team.

As they developed a project to improve local flood defences by planting mangrove trees, Aqilah oversaw the entire venture, setting goals, assigning tasks, solving problems and resolving conflicts. One particular learning point was around the effectiveness of splitting a larger team into smaller groups focused on specific areas. The facilitators, from our delivery partner SAY, were on hand to support Aqilah throughout.

‘The facilitators frequently gave us suggestions on what to do, took consideration of our opinions and never patronized us for being inexperienced,’ she explains. ‘The comments they gave us were also very insightful to help us identify and fix our mistakes.’

First steps

Back at university, Aqilah has wasted no time putting her skills and experience into practice, speaking up in class and actively contributing to collective projects. The final year of law school involves assignments where students have to work together as a ‘firm,’ and Aqilah’s teamwork and leadership training, especially her understanding of effectively sharing out tasks, have paid dividends.

Aqilah is now looking to the future with confidence, and is well placed to take her first steps into her legal career. She has a message for other young people who might be considering joining TEAM:

‘You will never know your true potential and the opportunities that are laid down in front of you if you keep telling yourself that you’re destined for failure. It’s never too late to try. Perhaps your participation in the Team Program will be your first step in finding yourself. Someday you’re going to thank your past self for taking this very first step!’