Spore Fresh Grad: A New Poor (by James Gomez)

NuLife SG

http://www.amrc.org.hk/4206.htm

foomwee88 SG

Not a new poor!!!!pls spare a thought of their parents,they r really a poor!!!

how can u support a medical student of S$18,0000 p.y for 5 yrs !!! which is equal to 50 % of our annual income!!!!

Pls help them !!!!! they r the best students but due to this shit gov,they cant!!!!

Lowclassman SG

You are right!!! Freaking policies of singapore.

the Bear SG

uhh... so... what do you guys want?

free tertiary education?

ShutterBug SG

I wonder, what hell goot is tertiary education now?

People study like crazy and gov makes money. In the end, can they find a job?? Not unless they venture out of Singapore...will they return after that, is another story...

Unlike myself, I dropped out at Secondary level (knowing full well it ain't worth the time and money) and made my way through till now running my own business.

Now our gov turns and favors FTs leaving all our local grads hanging dry, and the earlier generations become redundant working as Taxi drivers, table cleaners in food courts and in whatever menial jobs.

sourketchup SG

Medical students pay numerically the same amount as in an overseas college. However, it is stated that they are subsidized.

The male doctors would then have to spend 2 years as a Medical Officer in the army while their foreign and female counterparts surge ahead.

Everyone from NUS is then bonded for 5 years.

Now with colleges from India also recognised, perhaps it is reasonable for some parents to send their kids there instead. Much lower fees, no bond.

ShutterBug SG

This is indeed a Monopolized State.

dragg SG

are there really a lot of u-grads without work?

Quinsy SG

I feel like moving country liao… obviously the work market is reaching saturation point.

robertteh SG

When MM Lee and so many of his ministers regularly appeared in public and talked about Singapore's secret of success in the past 40 years as attributable to higher education and the newspapers kept featuring so many stories of people going for further education, that was the prelude of trouble.

Our government leaders have forgotten that beside education in the academic route, there are more worthwhile pursuits people should get into in other avenues like starting a business using one's existing skills, broad-based practical knowledge application and application of existing bodies of knowledge to produce endeavours and start-ups.

That was a certain shortsightedness on the part of leaders in asking people to go for higher education without regard to other endeavours.

They have already messed the education system in the first 30 years by over-promoting the elitist education approach which resulted in deprivations in entrepreneurship and practical business start-ups which ar really what is needed most in our society.

Over promotions of any policy can sometimes produce disastrous results. Over-promoting foreign investments led to killing of our own domestic sector of the economy. Over-academic pursuit led to neglect in grooming future business leaders and entrepreneurs.

So many people have neglected their other more worthwhile pursuits in life which are many more than a piece of paper. Today we must be one country where people went wholesale into pursuing degrees for the sake of degrees and trying to win the recognition rather than improvements in the practical sense.

Seeing this as the danger, I for one have posted not numerous feedbacks to the Feedback Unit back in 2002 pointing out the greater importance of pursuing practical knowledge application. I suggested the Singapore should learn from smaller European countries like Finland and Denmark how they excelled in broad-based education which created many good enterprises and world products.

I suggested that people should instead merely trying to go for higher academic degrees develop entrepreneurial knowledge application to prepare themselves to go into business. I cited the examples of many poly students becoming entrepreneurs because of such practical knowledge application as part of their training.

I also informed Spring during seminars that skill retraining over the past years did not seem to raise productivity or efficiency. It was admitted by Spring that the past training courses did not seem to have achieved the desried results.

I predicted then that Singapore was going to become a nation of educated unemployed or under-employed.

How true was that prediction. Today many of my advice to Feedback Unit had come true as predicted. We have produced many educated people unable to find suitable jobs or joining the rank of unemployed with the government not being willing to admit there is such a problem as usual.

Still the newspapers are reporting how quickly graduates are being snapped up by the employers when so many more remained unemployed for prolonged period.

It is another sad situation where government is causing big problems by their conceptual policies which did not work for yearfs.

The root of the problem is self-centredness, where mistakes made were denied and ministers refuse to admit problems like has happened in the NKF.

This is precisely the reason why many of the past policies need to be thrown out of the window and let new leaders come up with better solutions without any further delays.

will4 SG

i read the work market improved already but if u can remember last time got two graduates in civil engineering worked in hawker stall selling

porridge end up earning more. Neutral

oxford mushroom SG

the important question is: what did they study?

Wega007 SG

Free Teritiay Education no Available here in SG...
even other countries offer it free to foreigner, we so proud might not want it also...

Then cannot go China also.. as their is even worst!
school fees is like 100 to 200% of their national avg annual income!
no wonder so many chinese mei mei become mistress.. or can find goodies near school bar...

ShutterBug SG

What the hell does it matter, what they studied???

Saturation is saturation.. it don't friggin matter what they studied!

Besides, all preferences were for FTs!

So it's purely - LPPL!

ShutterBug SG

BRAVO! Very well said Robertteh!

Our gov thinks tertiary education ensures one's career path - but an over-supply of grads plus the fact that they now favor FTs (Especially PRCs) screws their earlier advocation of higher learning for success!!!!

And now, our beloved PM says he can address the issue of Income Gap by ENHANCING the education system!

Wahhahahahahahahahaaa............ Laughing

They are becoming more and more of joke as they go on being in power!!!

oxford mushroom SG

Far from it...there are plenty of jobs available in the biomedical and financial sectors but we do not have enough grads with the required experience and skills. Fresh grads should swallow their pride and intern at top MNCs or laboratories, make a name before they can expect to earn a good salary.

Why should I hire a fresh grad from NUS with 2 honours degrees but no experience for 2.5k when I can get a PhD holder from China with 2 years' experience for 2k?

ShutterBug SG

Precisely! You are right!

That's why I say the gov's education system is basically FLAWED right from day ONE!

And also, for all the millions they are paid, they failed to guide and direct society gainfully.

Now they are saying they will enhance the education system to address income gap???

Me toes are laughing....

SnowFlag SG

We do have free tertiery education for the FTs in NUS/NTU Very Happy

sgheartland SG

The scholarships offered by stat boards for these FTs are public funds.

We pay them to come here study, earn money, and then go back to their home-land while some of our good students are rejected by the local unis, not to mention scholarships.

the govt doesn't take care of us so it is every man for himself. If the day comes when singapore is in danger, nobody will sacrifice for the country (but maybe can ask all the FTs who have benefitted a lot here to do so).

LazerLordz SG

We lack the numbers for the liberal arts and academia, because lots of people blindly follow what they think is contemporary market trends.

You've got to think 4-5 years ahead of you.