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The Council for Private Education has commissioned a $109,000 study to look into the real-world worth of private degrees.
Amongst other criteria, the study will assess the salary increments of graduates from 9 of Singapore’s most popular private universities and whether these graduates feel that the industry has duly recognised their qualifications.
While the findings of the study has yet to be presented, the preliminary report by the Straits Times seems to have negative connotations. One interviewee Daniel Ng saw how his friends have gone for “a degree, [only to find] that it made no difference to their work.”
The report also quoted a HR expert who shared that these mid-career applicants received a pay rise of 5 to 10 percent as these graduates are essentially put on the same footing as fresh graduates who were just 22 or 23 years old.
While there are no statistics as to how many Singaporeans would aspire to be degree holders, it is clear that a degree is largely perceived to give a strong edge to applicants in the labour market.
Not only is Singapore’s PMET population is expected to make up 40% of the workforce by 2030, the average starting pay difference between a degree holder and a diploma holder is as much as 37% while the career progression at later life is even greater.
However, the reality given by such scenarios underlie the difficulties for those middle-career professionals who wish to upgrade themselves, especially since these degrees easily cost upwards of $20k not including the opportunity costs of pursuing one.
It can be said that the situation facing these mid-career professionals are also a reflection of the failure of PAP’s policies in both education and immigration.
Since 2013, PAP ministers have repeatedly stressed that a degree is not essential – Khaw Boon Wan infamously stated “You own a degree, but so what? That you can’t eat it. If that cannot give you a good life, a good job, it is meaningless.”
Despite this, the PAP government has spent more than $36 million a year on scholarships to foreign students (and a further $240 million on tuition grants) in 2012. Singaporeans were kept in the dark over all these until the Worker’s Party MP Yee Jenn Jong raised a parliamentary question.
While these policy makers speak from their high ivory tower, numerous complaints have sufficed online where suitably-qualified Singaporeans have been passed on for a job opportunity after a hiring manager who is non-Singaporean hire a compatriot.
How will such a labour market progress from there? Will we be seeing a situation where more foreign ‘talents’ are given higher positions than Singaporeans who are forced to settle for a diploma?
Amongst other criteria, the study will assess the salary increments of graduates from 9 of Singapore’s most popular private universities and whether these graduates feel that the industry has duly recognised their qualifications.
While the findings of the study has yet to be presented, the preliminary report by the Straits Times seems to have negative connotations. One interviewee Daniel Ng saw how his friends have gone for “a degree, [only to find] that it made no difference to their work.”
The report also quoted a HR expert who shared that these mid-career applicants received a pay rise of 5 to 10 percent as these graduates are essentially put on the same footing as fresh graduates who were just 22 or 23 years old.
While there are no statistics as to how many Singaporeans would aspire to be degree holders, it is clear that a degree is largely perceived to give a strong edge to applicants in the labour market.
Not only is Singapore’s PMET population is expected to make up 40% of the workforce by 2030, the average starting pay difference between a degree holder and a diploma holder is as much as 37% while the career progression at later life is even greater.
However, the reality given by such scenarios underlie the difficulties for those middle-career professionals who wish to upgrade themselves, especially since these degrees easily cost upwards of $20k not including the opportunity costs of pursuing one.
It can be said that the situation facing these mid-career professionals are also a reflection of the failure of PAP’s policies in both education and immigration.
Since 2013, PAP ministers have repeatedly stressed that a degree is not essential – Khaw Boon Wan infamously stated “You own a degree, but so what? That you can’t eat it. If that cannot give you a good life, a good job, it is meaningless.”
Despite this, the PAP government has spent more than $36 million a year on scholarships to foreign students (and a further $240 million on tuition grants) in 2012. Singaporeans were kept in the dark over all these until the Worker’s Party MP Yee Jenn Jong raised a parliamentary question.
While these policy makers speak from their high ivory tower, numerous complaints have sufficed online where suitably-qualified Singaporeans have been passed on for a job opportunity after a hiring manager who is non-Singaporean hire a compatriot.
How will such a labour market progress from there? Will we be seeing a situation where more foreign ‘talents’ are given higher positions than Singaporeans who are forced to settle for a diploma?
