For the last five decades or so, our operating model or mobility game has been that if we work hard and work smart, we should be on track to be rewarded with upward social mobility and be able to live the Singapore Dream. This maxim includes the idea that one must perform well in the meritocratic education system.
In recent years, tremendous changes are happening in the job market. By the time you graduate from university, employers will be looking for skill sets that are different from those who are currently established in their careers.
No one is born ready for the future economy. What matters is the desire to learn and readiness to change. My eldest son enters Primary 1 next year. When my wife asked me which primary school we should pick for him, I replied, to her annoyance: ‘It doesn’t matter.’
The university degree is now less of a passport to the good life, warns Dr Tan Ern Ser.
Besides working as a part-time barista at Starbucks for eight months, there are many things one can do to make even more productive use of time! Scholarship Guide suggests the following list of activities for recently graduated pre-university students who often undervalue or overlook such options in exchange for income-generating jobs. These activities are targeted at value-adding (oh, not this word again!) to and stimulating one’s intellectual and social capacities, in the hope that one would notch up at being a more well-rounded individual during the long break.
I have taught many cohorts of students through the years, and it is always a delight to catch-up with them whether at chance meetings, in professional gatherings, university events, or when they drop by at my office. Some are now in fairly senior positions, while others have somewhat modest achievements career-wise. I am certain that all my students possess the potential and credentials to do well. After all, aren’t they at or near the apex of the educational ladder? Why then the unequal outcomes?
