Tag Archives: Graduates

The government claims that it is those jobs that Singaporeans do not want to do which are replaced by foreigners. They claim that it is those tech-specific jobs that Singaporeans cannot do. Really? You mean no Singaporean in my company would love to be the GM of a new department? You mean that all the young students in polytechnics and universities cannot be trained to have tech skills for a digital Singapore?

I refer to the article “8 in 10 SIM grads find jobs amid rising trend of part-time, contract and freelance workers” (Straits Times, Nov 14).

I refer to the Straits Times article today, which carries the headline "Nearly half of Yale-NUS pioneer grads have job offers". You read it once, without putting any thoughts to it, it sounds nice. Then you realise that this means more than half of the Yale-NUS pioneer grads actually have no job offers. I know the media wants to make this sound nice, and that liberal arts are gaining a foothold in Singapore, but if more than half still have not got job offers, then we are not there yet in acceptance of liberal arts graduates. Article did go on to say another one-fifth have received offers to pursue graduate studies. This means the number of graduates without any concrete future is still much more than other graduates. And the article says observers indicates that employers here believe in the value of a liberal arts education, though it is still viewed by many as a "minority" option.

I refer to the article “Reflecting on 2016” (Straits Times, Dec 29). It states that “December may just be a routine month in the calendar for some, but for others, the end of the year is a time for reflection, contemplation and New Year resolutions. We celebrate milestones, remember relationships lost and found, think about mistakes made”.

The future for local grads getting employed in Singapore will become even more bleak when the government brings in more foreigners to work here. Indonesian grads are the latest to be added on the list to be "invited" here to work. Bala Vivian in Indonesia for manpower development to allow local companies to recruit talents from Indonesia.

I refer to the article “Salaries for polytechnic graduates rise after remaining flat for 2 years” (Straits Times, Jan 8). It states that “A graduate employment survey, conducted by the five polytechnics on the class of 2015, showed that those in full-time employment earned a gross monthly salary of about $2,100. In the previous two years, the salary remained at $2,000. But the proportion of those with full-time permanent jobs, though, fell from 59.4 per cent for the class of 2014 to 57.9 per cent for those graduating last year.

The Singapore Institute of Technology reported a gross mean monthly salary of $3,010″ – what may perhaps be interesting to note is that some of the private universities may be giving more statistics than the public universities. For example – “At JCU, its survey of students who graduated at the end of 2013 and in 2014 found that more than seven in 10 were settled in jobswithin six months. About half had salaries of between $2,001 and $3,000, and about 30 per cent made less than $2,000 a month”. Does this mean that about 30 per cent were unemployed?

I refer to the article “NUS grads among the world’s most employable” (Straits Times, Nov 13). It states that “The median gross monthly salary of fresh NUS graduates in full-time permanent employment was $3,200 last year, compared with $3,000 for 2013.” According to the Singapore Yearbook of Manpower Statistics 2014 (page H30) – the median gross monthly starting salary of university graduates in full-time permanent employment was $2,750 in 2007.

That Study-Hard-Get-Good-Pay philosophy may have been true in your parents’ generation, but what we have now is a society filled with degree wielding graduates who believe that they are special – the main lead in the blockbuster action movie of life. In a recent poll by STJobs.sg, 88% of fresh grads say that they expect a starting pay of $4000 at the very least. What you will soon find out is that your name doesn’t appear anywhere on the credit roll till the last guy’s left the theatre. You are Graduate #5722. YOU are the new norm and your imperial robe is an illusion.

About 190 Chinese graduates of master's degrees from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University attended a convocation ceremony and received their diplomas in Beijing on Saturday. This year, 360 Chinese students graduated from NTU's seven master's degree programs and a fellowship program, including Master of Science in Managerial Economics, Master of Public Administration, Master of Science in Financial Engineering, Master of Education, Master of Science Technopreneurship and Innovation Program.