University seems to be a must-go place for most Singaporeans today. While that’s good because it means a higher starting pay and a higher ceiling, it also means we start work later.
If you’ve been a fresh grad, you’d know that trying to get through an interview with nothing but papers is a tough cookie to swallow. Especially when you see the dreaded “minimum 2 years experience” in almost every job listing.
And, of course, it doesn’t help that schools, in most people’s opinion, are places where you get paper certificates. The real learning starts at your first job.
Advertisements
But What If I Tell You Schools Now Have Work-Study Programmes?
Previously, we wrote about the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) offering work-study programmes.
Think of their new degree programmes like an apprenticeship. Students will work with a partner firm and study at the same time.
Catered to students without full-time work experience, they will alternate between studying at the school for a term or two and short periods of full-time work with the company.
This will allow the student to learn and gain relevant skills at the same time.
Of course, while the company is expected to pay for the work stints the students put in with their company, they may also choose to partially or fully cover the school fees of the students.
If the student performs well, they might even be offered a job offer and a bond with the company they are partnered with.
Soon, Singapore Management University To Offer “Internship Version” Of Work-Study Programmes
On 8 September 2018, SMU announced that they’re looking to trial a work-study option.
This will allow students to take internships that last up to half a year while studying at the same time.
Advertisements
With this programme, students are able to alternate between working at least four days and studying on campus for the remaining day each week.
This, they say, will allow students to better integrate “institution-based learning with structured on-the-job-training”.
This option will be given to students in selected programmes, including the Health Economics and Management second major.
And if this pilot turns out to be successful, the school will look at making it a larger scheme.
That’s Not The Best Part
Currently, internships and community service do not carry any credit despite being requirements for graduation.
Advertisements
However, the school is looking to change that by revamping its undergraduate core curriculum.
So these two programmes will become “credit-bearing programmes”.
Which is pretty cool, when you think about it. After all, it means that you don’t have to extend the duration of your studies because you want to go for an internship.
Tuition fees are expensive, no matter how subsidised they are, after all.
With this, you won’t need to tell your prospective employers that your two-year working experience is leading a team of men to chiong up a mountain and taking down a platoon of aggressors #justsaying
Advertisements
These five GRCs could see the tightest battle in GE2025; here’s why:
Read Also:
- Trump Exempts Electronics from 125% China Tariffs, Sparing Smartphones and Computers
- Elderly Charity Shop Owner Baffled by Over 50 Boxes of Mystery Donation Blocking Store Entrance
- DNA from Two Men Discovered on Murdered Singaporean Woman’s Clothing as Court Orders Comparison with Main Suspect
- Former Police Officer Convicted in Fatal Maid Abuse Case That Left Victim Weighing Just 24kg
- Teen Arrested in Johor for Selling AI-Generated Fake Nudes of School Peers for RM2 Each
