Connect with us

Technology

Pearson launches Beyond PTE at Southeast Asia Partner Summit

Published

on

New insights reveal more than half of test takers in Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea pursue Pearson Test of English for work and migration opportunities.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Dec. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Pearson (PSON), the world’s leading learning company, today released insights from Pearson Test of English (PTE) candidates across Southeast Asia for 2024. The data reveals a younger demographic with ambitions to work and study around the globe.

This announcement comes on the heels of the successful 2024 Asia PTE Partner Summit, a gathering of more than 400 international education professionals simultaneously hosted in Changsa, China, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Manila, Philippines, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam and virtually across other Southeast Asia countries, South Korea and Japan.

At the summit Pearson launched a new test taker service, Beyond PTE, and gathered education officials from embassies and consulates and institutions as well as training providers to discuss the latest trends in international education and presented the annual report card for PTE.

Guests and speakers at the Summit included the Hon Phil Honeywood, CEO, International Education Association of Australia, Guy Perring, Regional Director, Etio (formerly Tribal i-graduate), Danielle Zhou, Business Development Manager, Austrade, Wu Xinping, Education Market Manager, British Council, and Felix Ye, Senior Market Development Manager, Education New Zealand.

Beyond PTE Launch

The Beyond PTE program launched in collaboration with Trip.com, Malaysia Airlines and Casita.com. This new service is designed to provide a barrier-free, one-stop solution for PTE candidates, through integration with the right financial, legal and travel service providers, each one of them offering additional benefits for PTE test takers.

Beyond PTE offers include:

Trip.com – Flight discount up to MYR40 or SGD15, 20% UK railcard off, up to GBP7, 5 % OFF UK & EU train and bus ticketMalaysia Airlines – Join MH Explorer program to access up to 30% flight discount and free baggage up to 45kgCasita.com – Student accommodation cashback up to GBP150/AUD250/USD200 for PTE test takers

PTE Director Asia, Matthew Lampkin said: “By launching the Beyond PTE cooperation program, we aim to provide multi-dimensional services and all-round support for candidates studying abroad. Pearson is committed to meeting growing demand, with new centres opened this year in key locations, such as Hanoi, Vietnam, Jakarta, Indonesia and Vientiane, Laos providing greater access and convenience for our test takers.”

New Insights from 2024 Testing

The lates insights from the millions of PTE tests taken around the world in 20204 were also released at the Summit including:

Demographics Comparison:Gender Distribution: Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea: Female (59.6%), Male (40.4%); Global: Female (50.1%), Male (49.9%)Higher female participation in Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea is encouraging in the region, compared to the near-equal global gender split.Average Age: Both regions show a broad age involvement from 16 to 73 years, demonstrating comprehensive demographic coverage for English proficiency.Nationalities: Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea: 89 nationalities (leading nationality: Filipino); Global: 180 nationalities (leading nationality: Indian)This reflects the regional diversity while highlighting different leading nationalities.First Languages: Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea: PTE test takers spoke 90 different first languages, with the most common being Tagalog; Global: Most common first language is Mandarin.Testing Locations Comparison The top five testing locations in Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea include key cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Makati City, Seoul, and Singapore underscoring PTE’s broad geographical reach.Purpose and DestinationsPurpose for Taking PTE: Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea: Work/Migration (52.5%), Study (31.4%); Global: Similar distribution, focusing on work, migration, and study applications.Top Destinations: Both regions show a high preference for Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, reflecting consistent global aspirations.Levels and Programs of StudyLevels of Study:The top two levels of study in the region are: Undergraduate degree (32.8%), and Postgraduate/Master’s degree (24.8%)Programs of Study:The top three study areas for the region are: Business and Management (18.2%), Health (17.6%), Tourism and Hospitality Management (11.6%)Occupational InterestsTop Occupations: Health and Social Services (29.8%), Technical and Scientific (7.7%), and globally the top occupations are: construction, education, banking, and finance globally.Information ChannelsPrimary Sources of Information: Friend or family (29.4%), Internet search (19.7%) and Australian Department of Home Affairs (13.6%), Friend or Family being top primary source of information underlying the strong word of mouth and willingness to recommend among PTE test takers.

About PTE

PTE is committed to providing fast, reliable, and accurate English language testing. With over 500 test centers in 118 countries, PTE supports educational, migration, and professional ambitions worldwide. By combining human expertise with advanced AI, PTE offers a fair and highly accurate English language test, recognized by governments, organizations, and universities globally. The test is available for all visa types in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, and is recognized by over 3,500 universities worldwide. In 2024, PTE achieved significant global success, including launching PTE Core for Canadian visa applications and gaining recognition in the Netherlands and the US. Over 2,000 US universities now recognize PTE, including Princeton University and MIT.

About Pearson

At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to add life to a lifetime of learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. That is why our over 20,000 Pearson employees are committed to creating vibrant and enriching learning experiences designed for real-life impact. We are the world’s leading learning company, serving customers in nearly 200 countries with digital content, assessments, qualifications, and data. For us, learning is not just what we do. It’s who we are. Visit us at pearsonplc.com. 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/pearson-launches-beyond-pte-at-southeast-asia-partner-summit-302333184.html

SOURCE Pearson

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

Published

on

By

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

Continue Reading

Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

Published

on

By

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

Continue Reading

Technology

Air Products to Expand Industrial Gas Supply for Samsung Electronics’ Next-Generation Semiconductor Fab in South Korea

Published

on

By

New investment underscores the company’s long-term commitment to Korea and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry 

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE:APD), a world-leading industrial gases company and serving Samsung globally, today announced it has been selected by Samsung to supply industrial gases for its new advanced semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Under the agreement, Air Products will build, own and operate multiple state-of-the-art production facilities and a bulk specialty gas supply system to supply nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and hydrogen for Samsung’s new semiconductor fab. The new facilities are expected to come onstream in multiple phases from 2028 through 2030.

Air Products has a long track record of executing multiple phase expansions in Pyeongtaek to support Samsung’s growing manufacturing needs. This latest project represents Air Products’ largest investment to date in the semiconductor industry and will establish Pyeongtaek as the company’s single largest operations site globally supporting the electronics industry. 

“Air Products is honored to be selected once again by Samsung and to have their continued confidence as a trusted partner supporting their strategic growth plans,” said SR Kim, President, Air Products Korea. “This significant investment reinforces Air Products’ role as a leading global supplier to the semiconductor industry and underscores our long-standing commitment to supporting our strategic customers with safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

Air Products has served the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to many of the world’s leading technology companies. The company has operated in Korea for more than 50 years and has established a strong position in electronics and manufacturing sectors.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 85 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world’s largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2025 sales of $12 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedInXFacebook or Instagram.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/air-products-to-expand-industrial-gas-supply-for-samsung-electronics-next-generation-semiconductor-fab-in-south-korea-302757497.html

SOURCE Air Products

Continue Reading

Trending