Education news for the February 2021 included:
MOM to look at ways to introduce
unemployed fresh graduates to new opportunities
Such opportunities
may include the SGUnited Traineeships programme, which will be extended this
year to help fresh and recent graduates gain experience while waiting for the
jobs market to improve. Mrs Josephine Teo, Manpower Minister, urged fresh
graduates to consider the benefits of a traineeship.
"It is not
a dream job. The allowance is certainly nowhere near what you might be able to
get with a salary and benefits," Mrs Teo said.
"But from
the perspective of starting to build up, the perspective of starting to get
some real-life skills, from the perspective of being able to say to the next
prospective employers that 'I have been in this industry... this job role',
these are actually very valuable things that you will not get without being in
a traineeship."
More than 1 in 5 fresh graduates in
temporary employment in 2020
As a proportion
of the newly graduated workforce, fresh graduates from four local autonomous
universities in temporary employment more than tripled from 7% in 2019 to 22.3%
this year.
These are the
results of the Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey 2020,
conducted by National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore Management University and Singapore University of Social
Sciences. It surveyed a total of 11,800 fresh graduates from full-time
programmes on their employment status as at 1 November, about six months after
their final examinations.
Of the 10,700
respondents in the labour force, 11.3% stated they would prefer to be in
full-time employment, which amounts to about half the respondents. The
corresponding figure in 2019 was about one-third of those in part-time work
that year.
Three out of
four of the graduates in part-time or temporary work in November 2020 reported
that they were then under the SGUnited Traineeships Programme.
Minister-in-Charge of Public Service Chan Chun Seng clarifies misconception that scholarship holders have an advantage in career promotions
"I think there's more than a fair chance that people are promoted based on their performance," he said. "But, of course, whether we invested in a person before or not, we all hope that they succeed." He added that not all scholarship holders rise to the top, and that there are "great expectations" of those who have been given great opportunities.
"I'm quite confident that the public service has a certain diversity of backgrounds and there's a continuous meritocracy," Mr Chan added. "And that's one of the reasons we constantly evolve our selection and development system."
Ensign, SUTD announce new cybersecurity studies scholarship
Cybersecurity service provider Ensign has donated $120,000 to
SUTD to establish the Ensign InfoSecurity–SUTD Mid Term Scholarship to develop
more cybersecurity talents. The bond-free scholarship, starting 2022, will be awarded
to one Year 3 student specialising in security track from SUTD’s Information
Systems Technology and Design degree programme every year. The student will
receive $30,000 to defray tuition or study-related expenses.
SIT introduces new degree programme to prepare students for automation
Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) will be offering a new degree programme to fulfil the anticipated demand in automation engineering in the future by training students to develop, deploy and maintain field robots. The Bachelor of Engineering in Robotics Systems is a four-year programme offered by SIT and designed in consultation with key partners such as the National Robotics Programme (NRP) and Economic Development Board (EDB).
"Robots are no longer just operating in the factory shop floor, but are also required to work for, and alongside humans in various field applications," said Professor Chua Kee Chaing, deputy president (academic) and provost of SIT.
NTU introduces new core curriculum starting August
Freshmen joining the NTU in August will take up a new common curriculum that spans a variety of subjects, and will also need to complete internships in order to graduate. These are among the initiatives that NTU laid out on as part of its plans for the next five years, to better prepare students for a changing workforce.
