SPA9 application (for PRP training at KKM)

Assalamualaikum and hi everyone. Wohoo, would you look at that! Two posts in a month? That's nearly unheard of actually 😂 Alright, so I planned of writing about SPA application after I finished the PRiSMA one but then I thought maybe I'll just leave that to my friend Shanan to do it (and she did!). Her posts are more thorough than mine and it's also written in Malay. So if you're more comfortable with that, then you're welcome to go to her blog. I'm so happy that finally there's someone who will also be sharing about Pharmacy stuff through blog like me. Except you can rely better on her rather than me, who only showed up once in a blue moon to update hehe. Seriously, I'd urge the juniors to go and check out her blog for Degree stuff - it's informative and straight to the point. My blog is more of a place for me to rant so the points are a bit all over the place. 

Okay, so the reason why I wrote this one is to point out some important points in SPA application as I got some messages asking me about it. Plus, JPA organized a re-orientation programme with buncha medic/dentist/pharmacy graduates last Saturday so I figured I'll share what I learned from there. Well, I got several questions through Whatsapp juga so I figure....baik I tulis everything and put it in my blog so later I can just paste the blog link as the answer 😂 At least now you have not only mine but also Shanan's blog as reference, so that's double the help you can get huh? (P/s: This blog also explained about the application process in-depth. Not only that, you can also refer to Manual Pengguna SPA9). But before we go into the registration and application process, let me tell you a little bit about it.

For those of you who are interested in working at KKM (hospital or klinik kesihatan), then you definitely must do SPA application. As you may know, as compared to medic or dentistry graduates, they don't have the liberalisation options like we pharmacy graduates do (at least not yet, but there will be soon!). What this means is, it's not compulsory for us to work at government premise and we can also do our PRP at liberalised premise as listed at the Pharmacy website - only selected some are recognized by the Board okie. So many options to choose - private hospital, community pharmacy, R&D/academia and manufacturing/non-manufacturing pharmaceutical industries - but the process of PRP application for these premises is different than the application for KKM (for one, there is no need to apply at SPA but you need to fill in a form - "Borang Kelulusan LFM Untuk Menjalani Latihan PRP di Fasiliti Liberalisasi" and submit several documents to the Board etc - all this you can refer to the relevant guideline in the link I attached up there).

Alright, so what is the purpose of this SPA application? It's actually for the SPA to filter in the applicants and short-list the appropriate ones who fulfilled the criteria for Skim Perkhidmatan Pegawai Farmasi Gred UF41, as per Surat Pekeliling KKM 2016, which are:

1. Warganegara Malaysia.
2. Berumur tidak kurang dari 18 tahun pada tarikh tutup iklan jawatan.
3. Memiliki ijazah sarjana muda dalam bidang farmasi yang diiktiraf oleh kerajaan dari institusi pengajian tinggi tempatan atau kelayakan yang diiktiraf setaraf dengannya.
4. Berdaftar dengan Lembaga Farmasi Malaysia.
5. Memiliki kepujian (sekurang-kurangnya Gred C) dalam subjek Bahasa Melayu di peringkat SPM/SPMV.

The so-called "tapisan" process will occur every 2 weeks, so that's twice a month, and the shortlisted name list will be forwarded to KKM for proses tawaran kontrak (usually emailed to us one week before e-Penempatan (a feature in e-Pharmacist regarding our PRP placement) will be opened so by the time you get the email, make sure you already have which hospital or KK you wanna do PRP at in mind - prepare backup locations juga okay, cs there might not be a lot of vacancy available). Alright, so without further ado, let's go look at SPA9 website. SPA9 is an open application system which means that you may save data and submit later on (but ALWAYS CLICK 'SIMPAN' because I imagine you wouldn't want to retype everything that was unsaved, right). You're also recommended to use Google Chrome version okie.

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1. Pendaftaran pengguna (registration of new account)

A. Maklumat pengguna: IC number (with no '-'), full name as in IC, phone number and email

B. Soalan keselamatan: Mother's first name and your birth state

C. Kata laluan & kod keselamatan: your password and numbers displayed there

D. Persetujuan: Tick that you agree the information you submit can be used by SPA for the application process

Then click "Daftar". Later you can login using your IC number and password. If you're a first timer then you gotta click "Pengguna Kali Pertama". If you forgot your password then ya know the drill: "Lupa Kata Laluan" and all that jazz (you can also change your security answer). Alright moving on to the next one.

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2. Maklumat pemohon (Applicant's information)

Information you submitted during registration (e.g. name, IC) will be displayed automatically.

A. Maklumat peribadi: Full name, IC number, marital status, phone number and email.

B. Alamat surat menyurat: Three lines for address, postcode, city and state.

C. Negeri tempat lahir: Yours, your mother's and your father's.

D. Ukuran fizikal: Height (cm) and weight (kg).

E. Pusat temu duga/ujian khas: Just pick any place in the options that's closest to your house. There was an interview process before our batches but now there's no more of that. Oh, don't go yahoo yet because our batches are the unlucky ones that got stuck with contract positions now. How unfortunate, yeah?

Make sure you clicked "Simpan" before you go ahead.

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3. Maklumat kelayakan akademik (Academic qualifications)

A. Keputusan Peperiksaan Tingkatan 3 (PT3/PMR/SRP) - year, which exam and subject+grade. Yes, isi la kesemua lapan subjek and each grade you got for PMR. Then click "Simpan" to make sure the information is saved. It's okay if you got any part wrong because you can still edit it - well, so long as you don't press the final submit button after "Semakan Permohonan" part.

B. Keputusan Peperiksaan Tingkatan 5 (SPM/SPVM/SPMV) - year, which exam and subject+grade. Same drill as before. Then you can skip SVM, Peperiksaan Ulangan, SKM, STPM (if you didn't take it) and STAM and proceed to Sijil Matrikulasi KPM (if you studied at matriks before) or simply went ahead to Pengajian Tinggi (if you're from Asasi or Diploma).

C. PENGAJIAN TINGGI (Degree)* - choose degree/ijazah sarjana muda okay, because that's the qualification for UF41 position like I explained before.

i) Tahun Graduasi: 2021 (for RX16).

ii) CGPA

iii) Peringkat Pengajian & Peringkat Kelulusan: Ijazah Sarjana Muda & Sarjana Muda Kep. Dgn. CGPA 3.0-4.0 (choose your range).

iv) Institusi Mengeluarkan Sijil: Universiti Teknologi MARA.

v) Institusi Francais Luar Negara: Tidak atau Ya.

vi) Pengkhususan: Farmasi.

vii) Nama Sijil: Sarjana Muda Farmasi (Kepujian).

viii) Tarikh Kelulusan Senat & Biasiswa Pengajian: refer to the date on your official study completion letter. If you're under any scholarship, then choose among the options available (I'm a PBU student but in the session with SPA staff, she said to just pick "Biasiswa JPA" although mine is actually a loan.)

Click "Simpan" and go to the final part.

D. Kelayakan Daripada Badan-badan Profesional/Ikhtisas.

i) Nama Sijil Profesional/Ikhtisas: Ahli Lembaga Farmasi Malaysia.

ii) Tarikh Keahlian: the approved date of your PRP application.

iii) No. Keahlian: your PRP number, all 6 digits including the 0 in front.

Click "Seterusnya" to go to the next parts, which are Maklumat Pegawai Sedang Bertugas and Maklumat Bekas Tentera, which aren't related to us - so, just skip those sections.

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4. Maklumat bukan akademik (Non-academic information).

So there are 6 parts in this section - kebolehan bahasa, bakat, sukan, penerima bantuan, kurang upaya and lesen kenderaan - and I filled in the first part only (Bahasa Inggeris - Bertutur dan Menulis). As for the rest, I don't have any skill that matched the ones available (e.g. berlakon, ha I wish), I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum in being athletic, which is not at all, and I also do not have a driving license yet (lesen L tak kira). My KP02 class would be on 13th Nov so hopefully by early next year, I'll get mine. Anyways, just fill in what's relevant to you je la at this section okie. Next is jawatan SPA that you want to apply for!

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5. Jawatan dimohon (Jawatan SPA).

Choose at Ijazah Sarjana Muda/Sarjana/Doktor Falsafah, not bakat.

The jawatan that we want would be Pegawai Farmasi Gred UF41 (Peringkat Ijazah) - kod 1150. Well, the code will only come out on the next page, which is Semakan Maklumat Permohonan. Check whether your full name, IC, phone number, email (SUPER IMPORTANT! Wrong email means you won't get the tawaran kontrak by KKM), mailing address and jawatan dipohon at which level (degree ye, not bakat). Because this is a real deal - as in working at the government - please go back from the start and check all information you letak is correct, especially yang ada red asterisk (*). Click "Seterusnya" and you'll be asked to sahkan perakuan pemohon before you can tekan "Hantar". Baca elok-elok ok what happens if you give fake information. Also note that they said to check Status Pendaftaran at menu Semakan Permohonan and make sure the registration date is the latest one - same as in your Slip Perakuan Pendaftaran PDF that you'll get right after.

At that Semakan Permohonan menu, there'll be 3 parts which are i) Permohonan yang telah didaftarkan, ii) Status permohonan semasa and iii) Status permohonan jawatan yang pernah dimohon. Tekan (i) to see whether there are the correct jawatan (Pegawai Farmasi Gred UF41), tarikh daftar and tarikh luput (the application is valid for 1 year). Don't panic if you only see "Tiada rekod permohonan", because it may take some time! Hehe I did panic (as in I did the perakuan 5 times and got 5 slips with different times on it 😋) because I'm pretty sure most of my friends got their application recorded quickly but it turned out one of my friend had to wait for a bit as well. Sure enough, by the time I checked the next day, there's a record for my application.

You may go to the website periodically to check on the current status of your application, because you won't be notified via email. After all, SPA only worked to tapis the applicants and KKM is the one that'll be offering the contracts (SPA is separate from KKM). Remember, you will see three separate statuses and only one of them will say you lepas syarat (or latihan kontrak, but I think this only happens several days before you got an email from KKM - well, I think la but it seems like some of my friends already got this status this month when the next intake should be somewhere around Feb-March 2022 hmmm) and another two will say "tidak melepasi tapisan". Don't get worked up okie, the reason for that is because the application will be processed for three locations: i) Semenanjung Malaysia, ii) Sabah and iii) Sarawak. So I'd wager your application will pass for only one of these locations, although I'm not quite sure which one is it (maybe based on your address?). Bottom line is, kalau you got one yang lepas syarat then tarik la nafas lega cs that means you lepas the tapisan process and the status will change to latihan kontrak when the next PRP intake will be opened soon (kot - well either way is better than tak lepas syarat langsung kan?)

I think that's pretty much all there is to it for the SPA application? If you have any questions, feel free to comment and I'll try my best to reply. If I have time (and effort), I'll write a post regarding PRP at KKM based on what the pegawai from KKM and Pharmacy Board shared last Saturday as well - but no promises okie hehe. Till then, bye-bye!