17th September 2026 - 4 min read
STEM programmes for kids and teens are becoming more common, covering fields like robotics, AI, drones and cybersecurity. They’re usually treated as extracurricular activities, but they can also shape what your child eventually chooses to study, which in turn affects your education costs, the scholarships available, and the career paths open to them later on.
Malaysia Techlympics is one option where students can try out areas such as AI, robotics, drones and cybersecurity through competitions and hands-on activities. It is a national STEM competition run under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI). This year’s edition, Techlympics 2026, is targeting 1.8 million student and youth participants aged 6 to 30. It runs 90 competitions across 182 modules covering AI, robotics, drones, cybersecurity and green technology, with a new addition called AiRIMAU that introduces participants to agentic AI.
Minggu Sains Negara is another MOSTI programme that gives students hands-on experience with science, technology, engineering and mathematics outside the regular classroom. Activities can include AI, drones, robotics and science experiments, giving children a chance to try different areas of STEM and see what interests them.
Taking part in STEM activities gives children time to explore their interests before they have to think about what they want to study or do as a career. If they eventually decide to pursue STEM, the next question for parents is how much that education will cost.
What you’ll pay for a STEM degree depends on the course and institution. At more specialised institutions focused on engineering and applied sciences, undergraduate fees can reach RM90,000 or more. For parents planning ahead, the next question is how much of that amount can be covered through loans, scholarships or sponsorships.
PTPTN is one option, and the amount your child can borrow depends partly on what they study. Students taking Science degrees can receive a slightly higher maximum loan amount than those taking Arts degrees. The difference is relatively small, but it is still one factor to consider when planning for the degree.
The funding available can also depend on the STEM field your child chooses. Biasiswa MyBrainSc, under the Ministry of Higher Education, offers full tuition support for selected pure science fields such as physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics, but does not cover engineering or computer science. MARA and JPA offer scholarships that Science and Engineering students can apply for, while companies such as Shell Malaysia and YTL Foundation offer scholarships for engineering students.
Many STEM-related roles, including software development and engineering, fall within the skilled occupations category. Early STEM exposure doesn’t guarantee that a child will end up in one of these fields, or that they will earn a particular salary. What it can do is give them an earlier look at fields they may eventually want to study and work in.
DOSM’s Graduates Statistics 2024 report shows a split in graduate salaries by occupational skill category. Graduates in skilled occupations, professionals, technicians and managers, earned a median monthly salary of RM5,723, more than double the RM2,550 median for graduates in semi-skilled roles.
This is a broad occupational split, not a STEM-specific figure. DOSM doesn’t break earnings down by field, so it can’t tell us exactly what an AI specialist or cybersecurity graduate earns.
Getting your child involved in programmes like Techlympics or Minggu Sains Negara is a good place to start. It gives them a chance to try different STEM activities and find out what they enjoy, without having to decide yet what they’ll eventually study or do for a living. They might discover that they enjoy building robots, writing code or working on science experiments, or they might find that STEM isn’t for them at all.
If your child does develop a strong interest in STEM, keep track of the competitions and programmes they take part in. These can become part of their track record when they apply for scholarships, university programmes, or other opportunities later on.
Once they have a clearer idea of what they want to study, the financial planning becomes more specific too. You can then compare courses, tuition fees, scholarships and other funding options instead of trying to plan for every possible path years in advance.
*Figures current as of September 2026.
Iman writes about personal finance with curiosity. She is interested in the stories behind money, the hesitation around big decisions, and the small habits that shape financial futures. Off the clock, she is either dissecting a film or climbing her way up the leaderboard in her favourite games.
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