Why poly grads are more 'marketable'

[MarrickG]

WHILE university graduates are wallowing in self-pity over the latest news that more of them are unemployed than are polytechnic graduates, the latter group is laughing all the way to the bank.

The Manpower Ministry recently found that more than 20 per cent of the unemployed in Singapore were university graduates, while just 6 per cent were polytechnic graduates.

One common reason offered was that polytechnic graduates command a lower starting pay of between $1,600 and $1,800 a month, compared with a university graduate's $2,000 or more a month.

During a downturn, perhaps the difference in dollars makes sense.

But I say it's also because employers, who can pick and choose at this time, are valuing attitude over aptitude - and this has turned the tables on students who think that attaining a university degree is the end of having to work hard.

It's a common perception here, drummed into students' heads since young, that university graduates have the best brains, and this gives some of them airs and expectations.

But not all the top brains are going the junior college-university route. Some students with top O-level results have chosen the polytechnic route, recognising it as a hands-on, skills-based way to university.

The present-day diploma holders - the product of the past five years or so of the polytechnics' improved curricula, programmes and image - may be just as brainy as degree holders, but without the airs.

Without the expectation that a degree brings with it better pay, polytechnic graduates are more willing to work their way up, and are not so arrogant as to expect their own office with a window view from Day One.

Many of them have also held part-time jobs during their relatively longer summer holidays, doing anything from selling ice-cream to folding clothes and putting on shoes for customers as sales assistants in department stores.

Fewer junior college students, who generally have much shorter school holidays, have taken up such jobs - or even thought about doing such menial tasks, which some may feel are beneath their educational level.

So if polytechnic graduates are just as smart as university graduates, are willing to accept lower pay and have the attitude to match, why shouldn't employers value this segment of GenY?

I'm not thumbing my nose at university graduates but, guys, we should really look at the name we're giving ourselves.

I graduated from a Singapore university almost five years ago when the economy was still recovering from the Sars fallout. Many graduates that year spent months supposedly job-hunting, but more of them were taking month-long 'graduation trips' back to back.

When they finally landed jobs, many didn't stick with them once the economy picked up. They left as soon as positions with greater prestige, or which offered a few dollars more, came along - precisely what employers are now worried about again.

So eat humble pie, university graduates, because you can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

[scroobal]

Such a long story for something that is obvious on a day to day across the whole spectrum of human activity. The item that is mid priced in a supermarket will always outsell the cheapest and the most expensive item performing the same function and need.

Even a Poly Grad will eventually upgrade himself by attaining a degree or building an effective resume by experience and attitude. If given the chance and finances are available, 99.99% of poly grads will go straight for a degree after the poly education rather than hit the workplace.

Tomorrow, this dingbat of a reporter will write an article that most people prefer to go to polyclinics and neighbourhood clinics rather than those in Cuscaden and Orchard belt area.

The central issue is why there are no jobs for all Singaporeans that have taken the trouble and effort to study and follow the government education policy.

 

[jixiaolan]

This is something similar to what we have seen in the cultural revolution except that the target is shifted to the graduate instead of the landlord. It is just a tactic to cover for the failure of government to create sufficient jobs and their pro FT policy.

 

[scroobal]

Spot on. Quality of journalism stinks.

This is something similar to what we have seen in the cultural revolution except that the target is shifted to the graduate instead of the landlord. It is just a tactic to cover for the failure of government to create sufficient jobs and their pro FT policy.

 

[makapaaa]

Notice how the Leeporter cunningly dodge the real FTrash reason for the 20%++ unemployment rate among grads. And it's completely silent that the PAPee TRAITORs are paying themselves the BEST PAY in the world while BETRAYING Sporns.

 

[makapaaa]

So if polytechnic graduates are just as smart as university graduates, are willing to accept lower pay and have the attitude to match, why shouldn't employers value this segment of GenY?

=> While the likes to Mabroky order Sporns to accept $1M PHoles. In other functional countries, this would have resulted in the dirty govt being overthrown.

 

[bryanlim1972]

This is something similar to what we have seen in the cultural revolution except that the target is shifted to the graduate instead of the landlord. It is just a tactic to cover for the failure of government to create sufficient jobs and their pro FT policy.

to be more precise, the article highlights the LIMITED ability of the government to only create jobs in the sub $2000/mth range.

the current government is UNABLE to create jobs higher up the value chain, because they are led by old men who are out of touch with the modern world.

"cheaper faster better" (CFB) should have been the mantra of the 80s, not the 21st century. CFB will only result in more work and less pay for the workers.

Singapore, of all the post-colonial independence stories, has mirrored orwell's Animal Farm the most closely. our highly "marketable" poly grads are no more than the "Boxers" of Animal Farm - loyal, hardworking, but ultimately betrayed by their leaders (just like our parents who busted their asses off in the 60s-80s, only to see their jobs taken over by the hordes of cheap foreign labour)

 

[scroobal]

Good post.

to be more precise, the article highlights the LIMITED ability of the government to only create jobs in the sub $2000/mth range.

 

[kingrant]

to be more precise, the article highlights the LIMITED ability of the government to only create jobs in the sub $2000/mth range.

the current government is UNABLE to create jobs higher up the value chain, because they are led by old men who are out of touch with the modern world.

"cheaper faster better" (CFB) should have been the mantra of the 80s, not the 21st century. CFB will only result in more work and less pay for the workers.

Fully concur. All the hoopla about creating high tech high value added jobs in a knowledge economy have long subsided.

Our "best and brightest in the govt service and EDB" could only think of pharma jobs --where even PhDs have become cab drivers. Pharma big boys need fewer but top-notched in research which Singapore lacks; not the manuf part which is a no brainer that can go to China anytime. Now again, the govt is crowing about precision engineering fields. Singapore once was quite strong in this supporting industry but do they realise now that much of our supporting SMEs are long hollowed out and shifted to China?

So after alll these years of higher education, the govt screwed up and could not create the jobs that would pay higher?

The days of mass-assembly and mass production in SIN are over. Even so-called hi-tech industries like wafer fabs, are hi tech only in design, but low-tech in production. Look at Chartered Semi. The multiplication of jobs is in the manufacturing stage, and even that, it is highly automated, and require 1 technician to look after half a dozen machines. Nothing that cannot be moved or outsourced to China.

If you are an MNC, and the govt guarantees you a low payroll bill, would you spend money to increase productivity with machines, IT and tech, to hire Singaporeans or would you just hire 20 of those cheap Chinaman?

 

[scroobal]

Spot on......

If you are an MNC, and the govt guarantees you a low payroll bill, would you spend money to increase productivity with machines, IT and tech, to hire Singaporeans or would you just hire 20 of those cheap Chinaman?

 

[kingrant]

That is the reason why dumbing down is sinking Singapore into a low wage trap spiral.

Thanks to our pro-capitalist fat cat govt labour and immig policies, foreign workers enjoy distinct advantages: stay in special low rent HDB flats, not absent from work because of NS, or maternal leave, save money on transport by riding the employer's shuttle buses or pickups --so already a big saving on the big ticket items like transport and housing.

Foreign workers can accept lower wages because their living cost base is lower.

If the govt sincerely cares for its citizens, it should redress the imbalances in cost of living. All it knows is about kicking spurs into our hides. Do we have cowboys in govt or responsible and caring leaders?

 

[littlefish]

Thanks to our pro-capitalist fat cat govt labour and immig policies, foreign workers enjoy distinct advantages: stay in special low rent HDB flats, not absent from work because of NS, or maternal leave, save money on transport by riding the employer's shuttle buses or pickups --so already a big saving on the big ticket items like transport and housing.

Foreign workers can accept lower wages because their living cost base is lower.

You have hit the nail on the head. I have never heard of a developed country that allows employers to house and transport workers brought in from other countries on an almost permanent basis. The closest I can think of is seasonal workers where workers are brought in to work on farms during the harvest season. But this is very specific on the industry and more importantly, the duration they can work annually.

 

[bryanlim1972]

If the govt sincerely cares for its citizens, it should redress the imbalances in cost of living. All it knows is about kicking spurs into our hides. Do we have cowboys in govt or responsible and caring leaders?

i think we all acknowledge the foreign workers' role in depressing wages and productivity, and finally the government is taking steps to mitigate this. but i doubt our present gov can ever be weaned off cheap foreign labour - the hole they've dug is too deep to climb out off.

to your point above, i believe the govt DOES care for its citizens, SO LONG AS its economically viable to do so. in other words, our welfare will always take a back seat to the economic survival of Singapore. but the fact remains this machiavellian government is the one our fellow citizens have voted for.

 

[johnny333]

Thats why I think its important for Sporeans to help them out by "retiring" them from the gov't.

What incentive do people receiving multi-million dollar salaries have to change things Heck if I was receiving millions of $$$ I would play safe & just do nothing to jeopardise the gravy train

 

[bryanlim1972]

Thats why I think its important for Sporeans to help them out by "retiring" them from the gov't.

What incentive do people receiving multi-million dollar salaries have to change things Heck if I was receiving millions of $$$ I would play safe & just do nothing to jeopardise the gravy train

i think as voters become more sophisticated, the ministers' job will get harder.

the old guard had it easier with our parents, when in those days, "A" levels was really a big deal already.

let's not begrudge them their million dollar salaries, flogging this old horse won't help to hasten their "retirement". while it may make many of us feel good about ourselves if we cut their pay, i do believe it will be counter-productive to national interests.

besides, many (but not all; does anyone else remember our soccer target of Goal 2010?) of the ministers would probably get higher pay in the private sector.

 

[angry_one]

Shoddy reporting by 3rd world writer. Why the generalization of degree holders vs diploma holders again? This is a tired and repeated topic. I know poly grads who are pompous, and degree holders with great working attitudes. I also know most poly grads who go on for degrees will have higher expectations, even more than JC-route graduates.

And everyone will always jump ship for a better job offer.

 

[kaipoh]

You talk like a politician, trying to hoodwink people into your scatological concept. A graduate is division I and poly grad is division II in govt employment strata. Dv 1 emplyee has his own room, if you know how to porlumpar a bit, you will be promoted to sup scale, your earning assured of 1.8mil. A diploma holder don't even dream of a room of his own.

WHILE university graduates are wallowing in self-pity over the latest news that more of them are unemployed than are polytechnic graduates, the latter group is laughing all the way to the bank.

The Manpower Ministry recently found that more than 20 per cent of the unemployed in Singapore were university graduates, while just 6 per cent were polytechnic graduates.

One common reason offered was that polytechnic graduates command a lower starting pay of between $1,600 and $1,800 a month, compared with a university graduate's $2,000 or more a month.

During a downturn, perhaps the difference in dollars makes sense.

But I say it's also because employers, who can pick and choose at this time, are valuing attitude over aptitude - and this has turned the tables on students who think that attaining a university degree is the end of having to work hard.

It's a common perception here, drummed into students' heads since young, that university graduates have the best brains, and this gives some of them airs and expectations.

But not all the top brains are going the junior college-university route. Some students with top O-level results have chosen the polytechnic route, recognising it as a hands-on, skills-based way to university.

The present-day diploma holders - the product of the past five years or so of the polytechnics' improved curricula, programmes and image - may be just as brainy as degree holders, but without the airs.

Without the expectation that a degree brings with it better pay, polytechnic graduates are more willing to work their way up, and are not so arrogant as to expect their own office with a window view from Day One.

Many of them have also held part-time jobs during their relatively longer summer holidays, doing anything from selling ice-cream to folding clothes and putting on shoes for customers as sales assistants in department stores.

Fewer junior college students, who generally have much shorter school holidays, have taken up such jobs - or even thought about doing such menial tasks, which some may feel are beneath their educational level.

So if polytechnic graduates are just as smart as university graduates, are willing to accept lower pay and have the attitude to match, why shouldn't employers value this segment of GenY?

I'm not thumbing my nose at university graduates but, guys, we should really look at the name we're giving ourselves.

I graduated from a Singapore university almost five years ago when the economy was still recovering from the Sars fallout. Many graduates that year spent months supposedly job-hunting, but more of them were taking month-long 'graduation trips' back to back.

When they finally landed jobs, many didn't stick with them once the economy picked up. They left as soon as positions with greater prestige, or which offered a few dollars more, came along - precisely what employers are now worried about again.

So eat humble pie, university graduates, because you can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

[yuelao]

besides, many of the ministers would probably get higher pay in the private sector.

You sound like a bloody PAPpy sympathiser. Please define what is your idea of private sector in Sinkieland. Does it include GLCs and previously protected industries like medical and law? Why don't you show us what is the percentage of ministers who actually rose up to head MNCs, even if it is just a regional head, or start up their own companies successfully (i.e. like how Sim Wong Hoo has done it)?

I will tell you what is the truth pal, most of the ministers are drafted from the scholarship system where they are posted to Govt ministries, Mindef/Police, Stat Boards or GLCs after their studies. This means that the vast majority of these idiots have never worked a single honest day in the private sector.

I do not mean that the scholars are all lousy. What I am getting at is that the scholars have no chance to know what it is like in the real private sector and thus have no empathy or understanding for what it is like out there in the real world.

 

[angry_one]

I think Bryanlim is being sarcastic.

 

[Dmode101]

simple

you see a lot of old out of touch man driving in new nice model cars while the young over skilled guy stays at home thinking what the fuck is wrong with his resume.

kill your father.